Oneesama
by Leebot
Summary: Otome Shiznat. In their years at Garderobe, Shizuru and Natsuki must come to understand just who they are and the roles they'll play in each other's lives.
1. Anh oneesama

**Author's Note:** At the end of my last chapter posted, I did a quick poll of my readers as to what they wanted me to update next (in case you didn't read that). This fic won out over Perchance to Dream by a very slim margin, so I'm starting it off first. I'll get back toPerchance to Dream soon enough; don't worry.

Anyways, a short description for those who didn't read it in my aforementioned note: I'd had the inspiration to write an Otome fic detailing the beginnings of Shizuru and Natsuki's relationship for quite a while. But with gunsnroses123's fic in progress, I really didn't want to butt in. However, it seems that's been discontinued, so the way is open for me. I'll try to keep this one mostly canon, following the events of the Drama CDs where appropriate. No worries though if you haven't heard them. (As I was writing this,Swarm012's fic on this subject emerged, but I think this will be different enough that no one should mind.)

I've also decided to take a bit more inspiration from gunsnroses123 (and the preferences of one reviewer), and I'm framing this story with flashbacks from a future which takes place soon after the end of Mai Otome Zwei. This won't be the main story, but there will be a storyline going on there. I'm also going to try to make this able to fit within the same universe as Ascension (my collaboration fic with centauri2002), but I may have to overwrite it if my co-author takes too long at getting back to it. :P

Final note: Anh's name was translated as "Ein" in some subs, though given Annan's Vietnamese theme, "Anh" (a Vietnamese girl's name) is most likely correct. Anyways, enough with the notes, onto the fic!

* * *

**Title:** Oneesama

**Rating:** T (possibly bordering on M for a certain scene in this chapter and other implications, but that should be as bad as this fic gets)

**Chapter 1:** Anh-oneesama

**Warnings:** Anh, alcohol, Anh on alcohol.

* * *

Natsuki Kruger, Gakuencho of Garderobe, was missing. Well, not officially, and not against any rules, but in Shizuru's mind, she still counted as missing. She'd arranged with the First Column, Sarah Gallagher, to have her fill in for the rest of the day, and she'd made sure to complete any duties that required her personally the previous day. With everything set up, she'd disappeared. But she was still considered missing for the simple reason that she'd said not a word of what she was doing to Shizuru.

It was completely unlike Natsuki, to say the least – all the more so given how she'd been acting since Shizuru had been cured of her petrification. Shizuru had never before seen the normally-withdrawn Gakuencho be so clingy – save perhaps in the immediate aftermath of lovemaking or in her sleep. Natsuki seemed to be making an effort to be in the same room as Shizuru whenever possible, and whenever they had a moment alone, she was sure to show her affection with a tender hug or kiss.

It was really touching to see how much her absence had affected Natsuki, if a bit heartbreaking to know the pain she must have been going through. Although it had been many painful days for Natsuki, the whole incident had lasted only a moment for Shizuru. One second she was investigating a crater caused by Thron 1 and received a warning from a petrified Miyu, and an attack by a shadowy presence later, she was slumped over in the infirmary, completely exhausted.

Fortunately for her peace of mind, it only took Natsuki five seconds from realizing they were cured before she had Shizuru in her arms. She was still completely clueless as to what had happened, but the jubilation all around her let her know that things were alright, at least. She was put off a bit when Natsuki started openly crying in their embrace, concerned for her girlfriend's image, but no one seemed to mind – especially when Haruka was making a much bigger deal about demanding to know all that had happened while simultaneously trying to pay attention to her own girlfriend's need to feel her presence again. Even Nao and Miss Maria held their tongues at the scene.

Things calmed down eventually, though, and Natsuki was able to take some private time with Shizuru to explain all that had happened. Her change in attitude was left mostly unsaid, but only because she'd decided to show it to Shizuru rather than simply telling her. She didn't really need to speak the words, though, for Shizuru to understand. They'd been with each other for so long they could practically read each other's minds.

Not now, though. Natsuki's departure had taken Shizuru completely by surprise. She'd simply returned from a routine meeting with Queen Mashiro to find that Natsuki had departed. Even though Shizuru regularly filled in for Natsuki under normal circumstances, for some reason Natsuki had asked Sara to fill in instead. It was almost as if Natsuki made that choice specifically so she wouldn't have to inform Shizuru that she was leaving.

As for why she'd left, Sara wasn't given any reason. There wasn't any emergency taking place, or Shizuru would certainly have been informed of it, and no one she'd talked to had had any other ideas. She hadn't been this baffled by Natsuki for years. Then again, that last instance of complete befuddlement had had quite good consequences in the end. Perhaps she'd just have to trust Natsuki to make it worthwhile this time as well.

* * *

I owe a lot of who I was back in Garderobe to my Oneesama, Anh Lu. Most of it was good, but I did pick up a few bad traits from her as well. An outsider looking at all the influence she had on me would likely say that overall she was quite a blessing. The problem is, they wouldn't know just what the bad traits I picked up from her nearly cost me. I was truly lucky things turned out as they did. If things had gone just a little differently, I'd be a much worse person today, and I'd never know what I was missing.

When I first entered Garderobe, I was a hopelessly naïve city girl. My family was extraordinarily well-off, which unfortunately left me horribly unprepared for life at Garderobe. I went from having a fleet of maids at my command to training to be one. At least, that was how it seemed my first few weeks there. Instead of noble warriors, I started to see Otome as glorified maids. That view didn't last long, though. It was simply childish spite at being forced into hard labor for the first time in my life.

I wasn't the only one having problems adjusting to the lifestyle. Most of the girls there came from rich families, and so they were facing the same problems that I was. In the minority were the girls who'd won scholarships or grants for their education. Not only were these girls more often lower-class and thus better prepared for the work involved, but the fact that they'd earned their tuition meant that they were already quite extraordinary.

While, outside of Garderobe, we might have looked down on these girls, all class divisions were stripped away within the school. Thanks to the little selection bias in their favor, they jumped to the top of the class. We were suddenly all competing to keep up with them. They were lesser idols during our first weeks at school. Of course, our real idols were the second-year students, the Pearls. They'd already been through all of this, and they knew just what we were going through in adjusting.

The most idolized of the Pearls were the top three, the Trias. But of them, the top-ranking Pearl, Anh Lu, easily overshadowed the other two. Anh was the perfect idol for every student at Garderobe. She was dignified, beautiful, and fierce in battle. Her personality also leant itself well to idolatry. She was perfect at giving all of her fans just a moment of personal attention when she was swarmed, and she somehow made everyone feel like they were special to her.

We soon learned that, before long, the Pearls would each be selecting one or two Corals – us first year students – to be their "heya-gakkari." A heya-gakkari served as the Pearl's personal attendant, and did whatever chores were asked of her. In return, the Pearl would help tutor the heya-gakkari, both in academics and in combat. Everyone competed to gain the attention of the upper Pearls, hoping to get one of the best to help them out.

Now, with a situation like the heya-gakkari system, human nature tends to take over. Since the heya-gakkari was obligated to do whatever her Oneesama asked of her, a few students took advantage of this to fill their baser desires. It was well-known around Garderobe that this went on, but few really minded it. With all of the idolatry of the Pearls that went on, many girls actually hoped that their beloved Oneesama would request such favors from them.

It's not that Garderobe was filled entirely with lesbians, of course. It was simply that being an Otome limited our options. We were surrounded entirely by other girls at the time we were first maturing, and we also knew that we could never have sex with a man until we retired. With all the exploration and discovery that goes on at that age, it would be more surprising if this behavior weren't so common.

It was during my first couple months at Garderobe that I really discovered myself. I joined in with many of my friends in idolizing our "Anh-oneesama." I was practically in love with her. When sexual urges started to crop up within me, I soon realized that I was one of the lucky few who truly desired girls. I started to dream of falling in love with Anh and developing a relationship with her. In my fantasies, we didn't even have to end it after we left Garderobe, as happened with most relationships between students.

With such a desirable dream in mind, I set myself out to earn her attention so I could be her heya-gakkari. I devoted myself entirely to my studies and practice. I shot ahead of all the other Corals, and when the first rankings came out, I was on top. In second place was my roommate, Haruka Armitage, who'd been fully expecting to come out on top herself. From that point on, she declared herself my rival, and she fought with me for every honor at Garderobe – including Anh's attention.

Fortunately for my sake, Haruka's exuberance far outstripped her common sense. Her idea of getting Anh to notice her involved smuggling a load of beer into Garderobe and offering to share it with her and some of Anh's other fan girls – myself not included among them, naturally. Though given that she'd decided to throw this little party in our room, she probably wouldn't have been able to refuse me if I'd asked without losing face.

Nevertheless, I decided to simply attempt to occupy myself with homework while the party went on around me (and quickly spilled out into the hall). I was hoping that I could impress Anh with my studiousness in the face of debauchery. Back then, I'd fallen for her public image and thought of her as someone perfectly prim and proper, who'd just decided to attend this event to keep it from getting out of control. I was wrong.

Haruka's plan went to hell thanks to a couple facets of Anh's personality which she'd carefully hidden behind her façade. It wasn't her fault, really. There was no way any of us could have predicted what would have happened. The first problem was that Anh was (and still is) completely incapable of holding her alcohol. She normally avoids it, but she gives into temptation far too often for her own good – or for the good of anyone around her, for that matter.

This wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the other problem with Anh: Uninhibited, she's a complete lech. It isn't uncommon for girls to become more sexual when inebriated, but Anh is something else. She isn't just willing to accept any offers that might come her way; she simply sees what she wants and takes it. She also seems to get the idea in her head that everyone else is going to be just as enthusiastic as her.

There's only one saving grace to Anh's lecherousness: She believes firmly that an Otome must remain a virgin. She extends this to relations between women as well, even though there's no proscription against it like there is when it comes to relations with men. I wasn't about to argue with her on this point, though. If it weren't for this particular belief, Anh would have crossed the line from molester to rapist, and I could well have been one of her victims.

Well, everything came out into the open that night. When the other girls were only just starting to feel the effects of inebriation, Anh lost it. The first sign that something was wrong was when she started to ask Haruka some rather inappropriate questions. The poor girl was quizzed on her sexual preferences first, and when she reluctantly admitted that she was into girls to get Anh to stop pestering her, Anh then just proceeded to ask her if she was involved, or, if not, maybe a bit interested in something.

For a moment there, I simply enjoyed the scene. Haruka was quite amusing when she was flustered like that, and it was also quite refreshing to see her cowering under the predatory Anh. My amusement wasn't to last, though, as Anh's behavior started to get more worrying. She suddenly backed off from Haruka and started to complain about the heat in the room – which was currently quite pleasant. As a logical extension of this, she then proceeded to start stripping off her uniform.

When she was down to her underwear with no relief, she got the idea that it was simply our room which was hot, and she ran out into hall to get some relief. A stunned wave of fangirls followed her out, while those who'd started off in the hall were met with the remarkable sight of a nearly-naked and flushed Anh. It was fortunate for her that all of those girls had dreamed of such a sight for so long that they didn't have a chance to think overmuch on it. They simply stood and swooned, privately imagining that Anh had done this just for their benefit, possibly as a little thanks for the party.

"Aren't you all hot as well?" Ahn then asked. The words sent an alert through my mind. My head flashed with images of Anh going on a rampage through the hallway, forcefully tearing off the clothing of everyone in sight. I ran from my desk to the doorway, my instincts pushing me to try to prevent the imminent disaster. Unfortunately, my sudden appearance just ended up grabbing Anh's attention. "Shizuru-chan! You must be so hot staying in that stuffy room! Please, let me help you out…"

I barely had time to let an expression of worry cross my face before Anh was on me. To this day, I don't know how she managed it, but she was able to get the top of my uniform off in a matter of seconds, even against my resistance. At that point, my conscious mind abandoned me, and I panicked. I fell back into the room as Anh pressed in on me, now working on the lower half of my uniform. It was all I could do to throw the door shut behind us before she pushed me to the floor.

The struggle that ensued wasn't pretty – at least from my perspective; I'm sure_some_ out there would have found it quite the sight. Anyways, Anh was able to get the rest of my uniform off, while somehow I also ended up removing her bra – or perhaps she simply did that herself. Fortunately, panicked knocking on the door and Haruka's yells interrupted us before things could go any further.

A moment of clarity seemed to hit Anh at that moment, and I was able to slip out while she was stunned. I got to the door and opened it a crack, being careful to hide the state of my body. "Anh-oneesama seems to be suffering from heatstroke," I explained to the enraged Haruka and other girls outside. "She really isn't feeling right, so I think it's probably best if you leave her to me for tonight."

I was able to keep my voice steady as I said this – but only barely. The feeling of having my bra unhooked from behind in the middle of my sentence was quite distracting, but I don't believe anyone noticed. I said all of this in the hope of simply preserving Anh's dignity. I knew that Haruka, at least, would have figured out what was really going on. I tried to get across to her in my expression that if she didn't want to get into deep trouble for starting all of this, she'd simply play along and hopefully also disperse the girls outside.

From an expression of fear that appeared in Haruka's face, I knew she got it, so I quickly closed the door. It was just in time, apparently, as my bra was on the floor only a second later. Soon enough, Anh had me pinned to my bed and was eying me hungrily. For a moment there, I succumbed to temptation and allowed myself to peer down at her bared breasts. Embarrassment taking over me, I soon snapped my gaze back up to her face, where I caught her doing the same to me.

To put it lightly, I did _not_ like her expression. She looked ready to consume me. Quite honestly, I was frightened of what she might do to me. I'd never given much thought to doing things like this before. I'd fantasized about Anh, but it was more about the romantic, rather than sexual, side of things. I could feel my dreams shattering and being replaced by a nightmare. I didn't know about her limits then, and so I was fearing for the sake of my virginity. I even started crying softly as my fear grew.

It was at that sight that Anh finally sobered up. I found myself in a tight hug as she tried desperately to console me and ask forgiveness for her actions. Relieved to be safe and content to blame everything on the beer, I obliged her. The two of us shyly put our uniforms back on as she continually thanked me for saving her from embarrassment and again asked for forgiveness for her actions.

Anh explained to me then about what alcohol did to her and reassured me that she would never go all the way, even though she might press the limits at times. She'd gotten away with it in the past because most of her fangirls had been more than happy to oblige her desires. Surrounded mostly by girls she thought would be like this, she'd allowed herself to give into temptation and imbibe in alcohol for a night of relaxation and fun.

She'd assumed I was simply another fangirl who wanted her like that, which was why she'd gone after me as she did. My fear, however, was a splash of cold water to her. Not only was she ashamed of what she'd almost done to me, but she was also ashamed of how she'd looked in front of the other girls. She started to imagine them all reacting like I did to her display. I tried to reassure her that a lot of them had probably simply enjoyed the sight, and that I was simply the exception. It probably wasn't the best way to handle the situation, but it seemed to settle her down a bit.

All in all, I'm pretty proud of the way I handled myself that night. I know I wasn't a very elegant picture cowering in fear from what she might do to me, but it's the fact that I resisted falling for her that I'm proud of. I held strong to my convictions about how inappropriate her behavior was, and I was even able to break through her drunken haze to convince her of this.

Sadly, though, that was the high point for my convictions. If I'd kept working at that level, perhaps I would have been able to affect a more permanent change in Anh's behavior and attitudes. As it was, though, the changes I saw in her were short-lived. She picked me as her heya-gakkari not long after this incident, saying that she respected my strength of character. She told me that she would work with me to strengthen it even further over the next year. What this unfortunately meant was that she pressed my limits at every opportunity to force me to toughen up in my rebuffing of her.

I did get better at hiding my emotions from these experiences, but in the end, I didn't handle things properly with her. Looking back, I think the best thing I could have done was to take a firm stand with her and make it clear that even the slightest advances were inappropriate. Instead, I came to enjoy them. Her lecherousness infected me. Instead of fighting her off, I put up an air of it simply not bothering me. This allowed me to both enjoy her touches and keep my dignity. Before I knew it, Anh had transformed me into a younger version of herself: A perfect lady on the outside, a complete pervert on the inside.

If the younger version of me from when I'd just entered Garderobe had come across that older version, she would have been rightfully repulsed. I'd lost myself in the mask I put up for the world. I convinced myself that acting as an idol like that was what I truly wanted, and that I could be fulfilled with the shallow relationships I formed with my fangirls. I treated them all simply as means to an end, ways to fulfill my own personal desires. When I neared graduation, I dreamed of finding a cute young Coral and making her my own, for whatever I might wish to do with her.

Yes, sadly, at that point, the romantic in me had been deeply buried. I no longer dreamed of my first time being with someone I was deeply in love with. Instead, I wanted it to be a fangirl who was obligated to obey my every perverted command. It's hard just thinking about the person I was back then, and I shudder to imagine who I might have grown into had I not been saved by the very girl I'd once hoped to dominate.

Her name was Natsuki Kruger. I met her my first day as a Pearl, along with all of the other new Corals. I didn't think of her as much beyond one of my many fans at first. She was certainly cute, though, and perhaps the cutest of the bunch. She stood out from most of the others skill-wise, too, with only her roommate, Mai Tokiha, giving her any decent competition.

Natsuki put on a mask of her own back in those days. Like many of us, she'd been raised in a well-off family. She bore a grace well beyond her years, which would serve her well as an Otome, but she was still a child at heart and had trouble applying her grace properly. She wore her particular mask a bit too well, and a lot of her development in her first year involved her roommate breaking it down to help let out her true self.

One thing that came out when Natsuki's true self slipped out was that she'd fallen for me. I thought then that it was just like with my other fangirls, but I really should have known better. Much like myself with Anh the prior year, Natsuki was anything but a typical fan who just wanted me for my mask and my body. She wanted me for me – the core of my personality that I'd buried deep within me. I don't think she really saw anything of that person back then, but she imagined that she did and fell in love with it.

Of course, I realized none of this at the time. Her feelings were just those of another fan to me. All that really mattered was that I found her to be both one of the cutest girls of the younger class and one of the most skilled. And so when she shyly – and so adorably – approached me in the cafeteria one day to ask if she could be my heya-gakkari, I was pleased to accept her. By my own shallow standards, she was quite simply the best.

All that was left was to seal the deal. I brought my hand up to trail my fingers lightly back and forth across Natsuki's chest as I said to myself, as if in thought, "Ara, well Natsuki-chan certainly is quite pretty, and she's quite skilled as an Otome, too. She certainly meets my standards there. There's just one last thing I'll need to make sure she's skilled enough at…"

I saw the nervousness in Natsuki's eyes as I looked down at her, and the faint blush that was appearing in her cheeks. All I could think of was how cute it made her look. It didn't occur to me that she might not want this – I knew full well that all my other fangirls did, and I'd grouped her in with them. I figured she was just nervous about finally getting what she'd longed for for so long.

I dropped my hand down to cup her breast. As it slowly started to squeeze down on her, I leaned my head down to capture her lips in a kiss. She would be the first fangirl I'd ever given this pleasure to. I'd never even allowed Anh to take my first kiss from me. Natsuki was indeed quite lucky, I thought.

"No!" A high-pitched shriek tore through my ears while a hand fiercely struck my cheek. The pain froze me in the moment. I held my cheek, stunned, as my world started to shatter before me.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I have to apologize a bit for the scene between Shizuru and Anh. In Mai Otome Zwei, Anh's behavior is played for laughs, but I tried to play it a bit straighter here, to show the effects it would really have on someone who wasn't interested in playing along. I fear that it might have come out a bit harsh, though. But, well, I just can't play that type of behavior for laughs.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed reading this. I'll probably get to working on the next chapter of Perchance to Dream next, so you can look forward to that.


	2. Shizuru the Lech

**Author's Note:** I know I said I'd be getting to Perchance to Dream next, but inspiration is just pushing me to this fic again. After having been out of writing for a few days, I'm not going to argue with inspiration when it strikes.

Also, I'm sorry about the little formatting problem in the last chapter, with the section break missing before the flashback. I was trying to do a different type of break for it, using a chain of asterisks instead of hyphens, but apparently FF-dot-net doesn't like those. :P And I also for some reason forgot to do my usual double-checking on things like that after uploading… Kannin na.

**Edit Note:** Made a couple fixes since uploading this. I originally had Saeko's last name as "Kuga," but it's back to "Kruger" now. I was also informed (thanks, Olivia U. L.!) that Rosalie is actually a year younger than Natsuki and Mai. So, seeing as her role wasn't too detailed or important here, I've swapped her out for Carla Bellini, who's the right age. I might have to make Rosalie a Natsuki fangirl instead if/when she shows up...

* * *

**Title:** Oneesama

**Rating:** T

**Chapter 2:** Shizuru the Lech

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Natsuki let out a sigh as she de-materialized her robe. Her body always seemed to get over-energized and her mind hyperactive when it was on, which was great for battle, but not so much when she was simply using it to fly. As far as she knew, she was the only Otome who experienced this particular effect from wearing a robe, though others mentioned that they had their own changes in mood when materializing.

Shizuru, for instance, said that wearing a robe always made her feel even more graceful and at peace. It was just her luck, really, to get a beneficial mood change from it. Meanwhile, Natsuki had to deal with being constantly on edge. She'd had to face a lot of teasing from Shizuru about this when they first started training together. The girl thought it was trivially easy to maintain her grace while materialized. It wasn't until Natsuki managed to short out her robe during a particularly grueling practice session and had to have it replaced with a modified, more durable version that Shizuru admitted that perhaps it wasn't Natsuki's fault that she had trouble maintaining her grace.

Her Ice Silver Crystal robe had been quite a relief when she'd first received it, as it was actually capable of handling the energy her body seemed to build up when she materialized. It still wasn't perfect, as the energy actually had to go somewhere, and so she found that after she wore it for an extended period, it could still get quite uncomfortable and twitchy. Fortunately, she'd found out that the robe's cannon had a seemingly endless capacity for charging energy, and with some practice she was able to use that to her advantage.

Although this solved the problem of her excess energy and allowed for some incredibly powerful attacks, it still failed to solve the problem of how materializing affected her mood. And then there was also the problem that it seemed that whenever some problem came up in which she could take advantage of her cannon's energy store, events conspired to make it impossible for her to materialize at all. At least she'd been able to get in a couple of good shots at the end of the Wind Uprising, and she doubted anyone else would have been able to pull off the destroying the Harmonium. She wasn't _completely_ useless – as she had to repeatedly remind Shizuru whenever the woman got it in her mind to tease her about it.

Not that she really minded that type of teasing. Truth be told, she actually appreciated it – a fact that Shizuru had managed to drag out of her early in their relationship and had held over her head ever since. It was the other type of teasing which Natsuki really minded. Shizuru had a very annoying habit of flirting with seemingly every young girl who crossed her path. When Natsuki was around, she always made sure to give a sly glance to make sure that Natsuki was watching her. It was infuriating, to say the least.

Shizuru's intentions were quite clear, though – or at least, they'd seemed to be, up until today. Natsuki had always been quite shy about their relationship. She just wasn't good at showing these things in public, putting herself out like that. Shizuru, on the other hand, had made it quite clear that she wanted everyone to know about the two of them. She claimed that it was because she wanted it to be known that she was officially Natsuki's, though Natsuki privately suspected that her girlfriend looked at things the other way around.

And so Shizuru went out flirting with other girls in front of Natsuki, trying to taunt her girlfriend into exploding and making their relationship public. It was torture, really, seeing Shizuru act like that with others. She'd really wanted to let it all out, but she'd just never had the guts. It was ironic, really. As brave as she could be in battle, she was a complete coward when it came to relationships.

Things had changed, though, when she had to face truly losing Shizuru. She'd tried desperately not to let on just how much she was hurting while Shizuru was petrified. It was all she could do to focus on the task at hand and not worry about whether Shizuru would ever recover. She'd pulled it off, but just barely. But then, when she'd learned that Shizuru had recovered, everything had spilled out. She didn't care anymore if people saw how much she cared. Feeling Shizuru's reassuring presence once again was all that mattered to her.

After that, everything was out in the open. There weren't really that many people in the room who saw her, but it was enough. Word soon got out that she and Shizuru were a couple, much faster than Natsuki would have expected. She suspected, though, that Nao was behind that speed. Nao had actually tricked Natsuki into admitting to her relationship a couple years previously, but she'd fortunately kept silent about it thanks to some strong threats. Though now that others knew about it as well, Nao likely figured she was in the clear and went out of her way to spread the word.

Though Natsuki would have eagerly followed through with her threats to have Nao expelled or stripped of her position – and maybe her pants, too, to get some revenge for the incident in Aries – prior to this point, she just didn't have the heart for it anymore. Word had gotten out about her and Shizuru, and the world hadn't ended. It had changed, certainly, but it kept on spinning. Fan shops had started selling new action figures and posters which featured her and Shizuru together, and she was now free to show Shizuru a little extra affection in public, but nothing much else had really changed. Still, Nao had disobeyed her demands, so she'd have to at least see about putting some plans into action to take her revenge for the "incident."

But Nao wasn't the one who was really frustrating her right now; it was Shizuru. Her behavior this morning had been enough to cause Natsuki to snap and run off without telling her. Well, she had been planning on making this trip today anyways, but she'd originally intended to at least let Shizuru know she was leaving. She was still going to keep her intentions a secret though, as she wanted to make sure the end result was a surprise for Shizuru.

But then she'd been thrown off-guard when Shizuru was leaving to her meeting with Queen Mashiro. Arika had come to escort her, and Shizuru had done her thing again with the girl. She brazenly flirted with her in front of Natsuki, and even gave her a kiss on the forehead. Natsuki had started fuming at the sight. Arika seemed to pick up that something was wrong, but Shizuru remained cheerfully oblivious, simply delighting that she'd provoked a reaction from Natsuki.

Natsuki had gotten used to Shizuru's flirtations in the past, because she knew that Shizuru was just doing it to try to provoke a reaction from her and make her take their relationship public. At least, that's what she'd thought. But even now, when their relationship was out in the open, Shizuru was still doing it… It wasn't just teasing anymore. It was bordering on cheating, and Natsuki had no intention of putting up with it any longer.

She'd fretted quite a bit about what to do with Shizuru as she'd flown out. Heading off without leaving a message for her was a start, but it was hardly enough. With some time to think, though, her anger had abated somewhat. Shizuru was probably just flirting out of habit now. She still deserved a little punishment for doing so thoughtlessly, but simply worrying her for a day should accomplish that. Though, to get the message through to Shizuru that she'd have to stop her behavior, some more extreme measures might be necessary.

She certainly wasn't going to think about calling off her plans, though. She'd already put too much effort into this already, and it was much bigger than one small fight between her and her girlfriend. Already, things had involved pushing a couple bills through to Mashiro's desk, and it was only a matter of time before the news of them broke. She couldn't turn back now, and she certainly didn't want to in any case.

That being said, there was still one task left before her. She'd been able to keep one person happily oblivious about her relationship with Shizuru, out of fear of what her reaction might be, but she couldn't wait a day longer. She was sure to find out on her own, soon enough. Natsuki could at least head off the news and tell her herself. Taking a deep breath to steel herself, Natsuki raised her hand and knocked on the door of the only person on Earl other than Shizuru capable of intimidating her: the Countess Saeko Kruger.

* * *

It's amazing, when I look back on it, just how much happened in my first year at Garderobe. I developed my first crush (realizing I was a lesbian in the process), got molested, and had my heart broken. Then I became a bargaining chip of sorts in a power contest between Pearls, fell in love, and eventually even made love for my first time. And all that's just what went on with Shizuru. I could add in everything that happened between Mai and me, but it doesn't really seem as important, to be honest. Shizuru's the one who matters most to me. She's the love of my life, and so all of my memories have sorted themselves out to revolve around her.

I was smitten with Shizuru from the first time I saw her. At least, that's how I viewed things at the time. I didn't really know what love was back then, and so I thought I was in it when it was really just a blind crush mixed with idolization. My feelings for Shizuru weren't based on who she really was, but just the mask she put up for the world. Actually, not even that. It was the image of her I superimposed over her mask that I fell for. I couldn't even see her façade correctly, so blind was I.

I wasn't the only one to fall for her, though. Within moments of being exposed to her charm as she greeted the new class, it seemed that roughly two thirds of them had developed a crush on her. It wasn't that bad the whole year, though. Soon enough, word got around about Shizuru's proclivities, and her number of fans declined to a somewhat more reasonable number.

The thing with Shizuru was, she treated her fans a bit too intimately. She was fond of giving a particularly enthusiastic fan a kiss on the forehead just for the sake of making her overload with joy and pass out. Although that action crossed the line of appropriate conduct according to Garderobe's rules on sexual harassment, Shizuru didn't even stop there. She went a step further to take her own pleasure from her fans, which would have easily gotten her in trouble for molestation if it weren't for the fact that they were all so willing to have her feel them up. Of course, there were a ton of girls who wouldn't have appreciated such shows of affection, but the way Shizuru played things helped to sort them all out almost perfectly – the "almost" referring to me.

Near the start of the year, Shizuru was circumspect with how she treated all of her fans. She was affectionate and had this way of showing each of us just a little personal attention to make us think we were all important to her, but she didn't cross the line right away. She waited a bit, until she had a good view on a couple girls who she knew would be receptive to her advances, and then she struck. Her guesses were right, of course, and so she got away with it. As a few other girls made it clear they wouldn't mind, she shared the love with them as well.

Eventually, word got around most of school about Shizuru's actions. No one really thought any less of her for it, as it was always just with girls who were receptive. She simply had a reputation as both an idol and a player. Eventually, her fans segregated out into a couple camps. The close fans were the ones who didn't mind her touch or actively sought it out. There were also her more general fans, who were girls who simply idolized her, but didn't have a more physical attraction to her. Of course, there were also a fair number of girls who simply weren't her fans, such as my roommate, Mai Tokiha.

And then there was me. I didn't really fit into either group of fans. The real problem with my case was that I was completely oblivious to all the rumors running around school. I was always really awkward socially, and so I found myself completely outside the loop at Garderobe. The only person I ever really talked to was Mai, and that was only because it was unavoidable and she kept working at getting me to open up. Although Mai was a bit more in the loop than I was, she didn't pay attention to what was said about Shizuru, and so I remained oblivious to her tendencies.

Even if I'd known about what Shizuru liked to do, I probably wouldn't have fit in well with either group of fans. As I mentioned, I had a pretty big crush on her, but it wasn't anything physical. My parents had brought me up quite strictly, and I had rather conservative views about how a relationship should progress. It was already stretching things enough to be considering a relationship with a girl. Beyond that, I thought of things developing very slowly between us, with nothing physical happening for a _long_ time.

Yes, I was oblivious. Hopelessly oblivious. I spent my fair share of time hanging around on the outskirts of Shizuru's close fans, and I still managed to remain oblivious to what she liked to do to the ones who got close to her. I saw it happening a couple of times, but I always rationalized it away in my mind. To me, she was a perfect goddess, and she'd never do anything like that outside of a deep, committed relationship. With no one to break me out of my delusion, it just grew, and I fell deeper into my illusion of love.

I wanted Shizuru for my own, but I was clueless as to how to get her. I dreamed of becoming her heya-gakkari and using that as a stepping stone to build up our relationship, but I didn't think I had much chance at it. It was Shizuru's choice, after all, and all I could do was to try to stand out to her. I fought my way up to the position of second Coral, behind only Mai – who wasn't competing for Shizuru's attention – so at least I had that going for me. However, I was never one of the fans closest to Shizuru, as I was just too shy to push my way in towards her, and so I didn't think she ever really noticed me.

Fortunately, I was wrong on that count. I found out that Shizuru at least knew who I was and finally got a chance to interact directly with her one night, when the school was abuzz with word of an intruder on Garderobe's grounds. All the Pearls were called out to help track the intruder down, but even that wasn't deemed enough, and so Mai and I, the top two Corals, were also enlisted to help.

We didn't find the intruder, but we did stumble upon a cat that had wandered into the grounds. For some reason, this cat reminded Mai of me. On the outside, I tried to present a composed, ladylike appearance, but I was still a girl underneath. To prove this, she had the bright idea to pull up my skirt, and I couldn't help but scream in shock as I jerked away from her.

Mai chuckled in response to this, which only deepened my embarrassment. I glared at her through the blush that had formed on my face, but she ignored this and said, "I think you and I are going to become good friends, Natsuki-san."

I grunted in indignation, but before I could reply, a melodic voice came from behind me. "Ara ara, this seems like an interesting conversation…"

I turned around in shock, knowing who was standing there. It was my idol and my secret love: Shizuru Viola. I nearly swooned just from her proximity to me and the fact that she was looking me directly in the eyes. "Sh-sh-sh-shizuru-oneesama…" I managed to stutter out.

"Ah! Shizuru-oneesama, hello," Mai said behind me. Not being cursed with idolatry for the girl, Mai was much more able to keep her composure than I was. I was too engrossed in Shizuru's presence to care, though.

"Ara, you're Coral Number One, Mai Tokiha," Shizuru said with a nod to Mai. She then turned to me and said, "And Coral Number Two, Natsuki Kruger." She gave me a quick wink with this that I knew Mai didn't get. Did she recognize me as one of her fans? And she remembered my name! She knew who I was. I wasn't just another face in the crowd to Shizuru.

I was so overwhelmed with glee that Shizuru knew who I was that I didn't notice that she'd brought a young girl along with her until Mai asked, "And so who's this?" Looking down, I caught sight of a young girl with dark green hair clinging to Shizuru's leg. I silently envied her position.

"This is our intruder, Tomoe-chan," Shizuru explained. "She tells me that she's a fan of mine, and snuck in just to get a glimpse of me."

"Aha," Mai said. She bent down to her knees to talk to Tomoe. "You must be quite pleased then to actually get to meet Shizuru-oneesama, and to have her escort you around like this."

A big grin split across Tomoe's face. "Yup!" she said.

Trying to suppress my jealousy over Tomoe's luck, I turned to Shizuru and said, "So what are you going to do with her?"

"Well, I don't think there was any harm really done," Shizuru said. I could feel my heart pound in my chest as she talked directly to me. Sadly, she then turned to Tomoe and kneeled down. "I'll tell you what, Tomoe-chan: I'll escort you out of Garderobe, and then if you want to see me again, you can work really hard to become an Otome. I'm sure we'll meet again someday if you do that."

A blush appeared on Tomoe's cheeks, and she nodded happily. Sensing her moment, Shizuru went to do her thing. She leaned forward and planted a kiss on Tomoe's forehead, causing the girl to faint in an instant, though she had the fortune of being caught in Shizuru's arms. I looked on this sight with stunned jealousy. I wanted to be the recipient of Shizuru's kiss, not some little stalker!

To my chagrin, Shizuru noticed my jealousy – not that I was doing much to hide it. She turned to me and a sparkle appeared in her eye as she stood back up. "Ara, I wonder if Natsuki would like a kiss, too?"

My head turned into a grapefruit at that suggestion. My mind ran wild with thoughts of my beloved Shizuru kissing me, but I also worried about what she must have thought about me, staring at her so openly. But, to my bad luck, my embarrassment kept me from being able to say that I would indeed like a kiss from her, and I missed my chance as Shizuru walked away with a last farewell to Mai and me.

I let out a sigh as Shizuru left, finally able to breathe again. I barely was able to take a single breath, though, before Mai took it away from me again when she said, "You're one of Shizuru-oneesama's fans, aren't you, Natsuki-san?"

"Uh?" I choked out as I spun to face Mai. Gulping down my embarrassment and nervously twirling my hair around a finger, I said, "How did… how did you…?"

"Oh come on!" Mai said, rolling her eyes. "It's so obvious. You practically have little hearts in your eyes when you look at her, and it was so obvious you wished you were in Tomoe-chan's place."

I really didn't know what I could say to that. There was no point in denying it, and yet I couldn't bring myself to admit it out loud. So I decided simply to give a grunt of acknowledgement as I turned to walk back towards our room.

Mai was silent for a bit, but she wasn't going to let the subject drop. "Natsuki-san… you were telling me about the heya-gakkari system earlier, and I was thinking… why don't you become Shizuru-oneesama's?"

_I wish_. I sighed at this. "It's not up to me, Mai-san. Shizuru-oneesama has to choose on her own, and there's just too much competition for her…"

"Hmm…" Mai thought about this for a few minutes. By the time we reached our room, she seemed to have come to a solution. "Well then, we'll just have to make sure you stand out to her. Let me help you, Natsuki-san, and I guarantee you that you'll be Shizuru-oneesama's heya-gakkari before you know it."

I thought about this for a bit. I really doubted that Mai could help, but the prospect was just too tempting. "Well… I guess so…" I relented. I opened up the door to our room and walked in, allowing myself to drop to my bed as exhaustion finally caught up with me. "But why would you try to help me like this, Mai-san? What's in it for you?"

Mai came in behind me and took a seat on her bed, across from me. She looked at me as if I was an idiot – which, looking back, I was, though not for the reasons she thought. "I told you, Natsuki-san," she said. "We're going to be good friends, and this is what friends do for each other."

"Oh," I said. I'd never really had a friend before, being quite isolated in my youth, so this was new to me. "Well, thanks then… Mai." I looked at her nervously, hoping she wouldn't be put off by my addressing her without an honorific. That was what friends did with each other, wasn't it?

I needn't have worried. Mai simply smiled at me and said, "You're welcome, Natsuki."

I'll give Mai this: Her plan was inspired. Unfortunately, it relied on me being able to build up my courage to face Shizuru. I begged with her to come up with something to get around it, but she insisted that there was just no other way. I eventually relented, though, as she had a point. I was never going to get anywhere with Shizuru if I was too afraid to talk to her.

The key part of Mai's plan was getting Shizuru relatively alone. She was normally so swarmed with fans whenever she was in public that I wouldn't be able to push through to her. Even if I could, if I brought this issue up while in the middle of a crowd of her other fans, I'd certainly be surrounded by a chorus of "No, pick me!" and lost in the shuffle. I'd have to get her alone for her to give me any particular thought. It still wasn't much of a guarantee, but she just might take me up on it if I give her the opportunity.

Now, the problem, of course, was how to separate a mob of Shizuru fangirls from Shizuru. Mai revealed to me that back in her native country, Zipang, there was a habit among fangirls of creating what were called "fanbooks," roughly translated. They were essentially amateur-made illustrated novels, focusing on whatever the author's obsession was. Shizuru, being quite the idol, was bound to be the focus of many of these, though she'd only risen to that status recently, and so not many were made yet. A few simpler pieces of idolization of her had been made though, and I featured one poster of her from such pursuits above my bed.

However, the previous year at Garderobe, Shizuru was the heya-gakkari to Anh Lu, who was quite the idol herself. Quite a number of fanbooks had arisen starring Anh, and a few of them also featured Shizuru. One in particular was quite explicit, to say the least. It was far too much for me, to be honest. It made me embarrassed just thinking about the existence of such a book defiling my goddess. When Mai was able to get a copy of it, I wasn't even able to glance at the cover without breaking out into a blush.

Shizuru's other fangirls, however, weren't quite so limited. I may have been oblivious to how Shizuru actually treated them, but I did notice those girls talking about wanting such things from Shizuru. As such, finding a book like this would be irresistible to them. If they were told they had a limited chance to access it, it would even be enough to draw them away from Shizuru.

When the day came for us to put our plan into action – that is, when the urgency of having to ask Shizuru before she decided overwhelmed my nervousness and I told Mai I was ready – Mai covertly brought the book into the cafeteria during our lunch break. Shizuru, as expected, was surrounded by a swarm of her fans. I hung back while Mai went to work.

I saw her approach one of Shizuru's more respected fans: Carla Bellini, the fourth Coral. She whispered something to the girl. I couldn't hear what was said, but it drew Carla's attention away from Shizuru. Once she was pulled away, Mai slipped her a quick peak of the book. I could see Carla's eyes grow huge in their sockets, and a blush formed on my face at the thought of what she was looking at.

Carla's attention snapped back to Mai and she spoke up. Her voice wasn't quite as soft as Mai's, and so I could make out some of her words. It sounded basically like she was demanding Mai tell her what she needed to do to get her hands on that book. Mai whispered back to her, too low for me to hear what she was saying, but I knew basically what it would be from our discussions of the plan. The deal she would give was that Carla could peek at it for the lunch hour as long as she was fair and shared it with the rest of Shizuru's fans who wanted to see. She'd also have to be careful to make sure no one else – especially Shizuru – found out about it. In return, she'd just owe Mai a favor sometime in the future.

Of course, Carla accepted the deal eagerly, judging by her ferocious nod. Mai slipped the book out to give it to her, while Carla went to slip the word to the rest of Shizuru's fans. Soon, the news had reached all of them, and they flowed out from around Shizuru. They vacated the lunchroom – possibly off to the room of one of them – leaving Shizuru sitting stunned by herself.

Shizuru looked around in surprise as she suddenly found herself bereft of fans. She even got up from her chair to better look around and see where they had all gone. The confused look on her face called out to my heart. It was my fault that this was happening. I knew it wasn't really bad, but even hurting her this little bit was hard on me. That impetus was all I needed to get moving towards her. I didn't have to think about building up my courage at all for it.

Shizuru caught sight of me as I walked up to her, and relief washed over her face. It was probably just that she was happy she had some fan there, but I allowed myself to believe that she was specifically happy to see me. She gave me a stunning smile which nearly caused me to faint, and she said, "Ara, Natsuki-chan certainly is faithful to be able to resist whatever's pulling everyone else away from me."

A blush rose to my cheeks as Shizuru said this. I gave her a quick nod of agreement and tried to steel myself for what I had to say. I'd rehearsed the words so many times; I just needed to spit them out now. I could see Mai moving in behind me out of the corner of my eye, prepared to back me up and offer her support.

Squeezing my eyes shut so I could pretend I was doing this like in practice, without Shizuru around, I forced out, "Shi-shizuru-oneesama… I was hoping that, if you hadn't selected a heya-gakkari yet… you could please consider me. I'm a really hard worker, and already second in the class, so I can make you proud and handle all of your needs. I really, really respect you, Shizuru-oneesama, and I just want to be closer to you."

I pried my eyes open to look at Shizuru's face. I was scared as hell that she would reject me, saying that she had already chosen another girl or that she was still looking around, but I didn't see any sign of that in her face. She was a little surprised, but she seemed to be truly considering this. The thought that I had a chance and that this might work out sent a wave of euphoria through my body. My face broke out into a smile, and I looked up at her with my most hopeful eyes.

A light tickling on my chest caught my attention. I looked down to see that Shizuru had started to trail her fingers back and forth across it. As she did this, she said to herself thoughtfully, "Ara, well Natsuki-chan certainly is quite pretty, and she's quite skilled as an Otome, too. She certainly meets my standards there. There's just one last thing I'll need to make sure she's skilled enough at…"

My thoughts ran wild as Shizuru said this. Half of my mind was screaming in joy that she thought I was pretty, while the other half was worried that this mattered so much to her. I wanted to get to know the real person inside her, not just her mask. Were my looks all she cared about?

Shizuru's next actions caused all of my mind to shift over to worrying. The hand that had been trailing across my chest dropped down to cup my right breast, and it gradually tightened its grip. Panic shot through my body at this. I couldn't believe this was happening. It had to be a mistake. Why would my Oneesama do something so… so crude? I looked up into her face to see it coming down towards mine emotionlessly. It was lined up to bring her lips straight towards my own.

At that moment, I snapped. Nothing about this was right. A loving relationship shouldn't be starting out this way… She shouldn't be molesting me in public… or anywhere, for that matter. I wasn't even prepared for my first kiss. I couldn't give it up in this manner, even if it was for my idol… no, my former idol.

"No!" I swung my hand around with all the force I could muster. It met Shizuru's cheek with a crack that resounded throughout the cafeteria and caused all eyes to focus on us. I couldn't have cared less, though. I backed off from Shizuru and brought my hand up to protect my abused breast. On the verge of tears, I managed to get out, "W-what are you doing, Oneesama?"

Shizuru took a moment to reply as she held her cheek. I could see tears forming in her eyes, and my mind warred over whether I was proud or ashamed to have caused them. Eventually, Shizuru removed her hand from her cheek, showing a terrible red welt which had already formed.

"Ara? Did you not want this?" Shizuru said. Her voice was soft, as if in disbelief that this all could be happening. "It seemed to me that, asking to become my heya-gakkari, you also wanted this... My fangirls would all be glad to be in your position..." It sounded like she was trying to piece this all together in her mind, to rationalize her own actions and explain mine.

But she was dead wrong. That wasn't what I wanted from her. I didn't know about her other fangirls, but it wasn't what I wanted. "No," I said, still barely able to hold my voice steady. "It's different. This is…"

Shizuru shook her head, dazed. She could barely focus her eyes on me as she further tried to justify her actions. "But, what's different? You all want me, what else is there? Their beautiful and kind Oneesama… So, I'm just answering that wish for you…"

_What else? There's love, Shizuru-oneesama. Do you not even know what that is?_ This thought was enough to push me over the edge. I'd dreamed about her for so long, and yet she didn't even know what love was. My heart broke at that very moment. Tears poured from my eyes. "Shizuru… Oneesama…" The words were my farewell to my dream. The Oneesama I thought I knew had died.

"Wh-why are you crying…?" Shizuru asked, incredulous. She still didn't get it. "I was the one who was slapped, wasn't I?"

Why couldn't she understand? How could she be so dense as to how I felt to still not realize it? I tried to force out an explanation, but the right words just weren't coming. "But… such…" After that, all I could get out was a sob of frustration.

Shizuru started to speak, but I couldn't stand to hear anymore. I turned and fled from the cafeteria so I could cry in peace back in my room. I could hear Mai calling out to me, and then cursing at Shizuru as I was on my way out, but I didn't stop for her. I needed escape. I couldn't let myself break down in front of everyone else any longer. Even as I ran, though, I wondered what the point was. I didn't have anything left to live for, with my Oneesama lost for me. What was the point if everyone saw me breaking down or not?

I passed a few of Shizuru's fans on my way to my room, and I roughly shoved them out of my way. If they wanted those things from Shizuru just as she said, then they were as guilty as her. They seemed to notice that I was hurt, at least, and so they didn't press the issue. They were better than I gave them credit for, I guess.

Finally, I made it to my room. The first thing I did as I entered was to rip the poster of Shizuru off of my wall and tear it up in a rage. I shredded it as best as I could until I finally lost heart in the endeavor and collapsed to the floor in tears. That was how Mai found me when she entered the room. She had the sense not to say anything then. She simply sat down behind me and held me in a hug as I cried my heart out.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Yes, I'm working off of the drama CDs here, so if something seems familiar, that's why. I made a couple tweaks to the dialog here and there, but nothing outside the leeway a translation gives us.

I'm also quite sorry this took some time to get out. I've been busy with a few things, and generally feeling crappy for other periods. I've also been helping Shezaei Neko out a bit with a couple of her new fics. One of which is up now, while the other one should be pretty soon.

Finally, I've put up a poll in my profile for which fic you want me to update next. Please go there to let me know your opinion.


	3. Miss Maria's Scorn

**Author's Note:** Well, this fic won the poll by a wide margin, though it's possible there's some bias in the voting since I only mentioned it here. Anyways, I think the lead was clear enough despite that (plus factoring in how I tend to get many more reviews for this fic). I apologize to those who prefer one of my other fics, but I'm not abandoning them. I'm also going to reset the poll after this chapter, and reconfigure it to accept multiple entries (to accommodate those who can't choose between a couple fics). I might do this periodically, but not too often, as I don't want to force readers to keep voting all the time. ;P

Anyways, this chapter is dedicated to Shezaei Neko for her birthday. Happy birthday, and may all your Shiznat stories be well-loved!

* * *

**Title:** Oneesama

**Rating:** T

**Chapter 3:** Miss Maria's Scorn

* * *

Shizuru let out a disappointed sigh as she failed to find Natsuki in their shared apartment – covertly formed by installing an extra door between the Second and Third Columns' official residences in Garderobe – when she returned home from her day at work. She allowed herself to collapse into a chair in their study and gazed out the window, having worn out every option for finding Natsuki hiding somewhere. Finding Natsuki waiting at home to surprise her was her last remaining hope for satisfactorily explaining her lover's absence, and now that was gone.

After all the problems that had come up at the beginning of their relationship due to not communicating well enough with each other, Natsuki and Shizuru had made a promise to be as open as possible with each other to avoid such problems in the future. The only exceptions they allowed for this was when they were planning some surprise. Shizuru had been hoping that this was the case today, though she couldn't think what the reason might be. It wasn't anywhere near either of their birthdays or any particular anniversary of their relationship she could think of. Then again, with how Natsuki had been acting lately, surprising Shizuru for no reason wouldn't have been too shocking. But sadly, that didn't appear to be the case today.

Whatever Natsuki's reason for leaving, Shizuru was left out of the loop on it. As far as she knew, Natsuki had always been completely open with her, and she'd tried to be so in turn. _No, wait…_ Shizuru sighed, a little voice in her mind reminding her that there were indeed a couple things she'd been keeping secret from Natsuki. There was her role in the Natsuki Kruger fanclub for one, which she'd rationalized keeping secret as it had started before they'd made this promise to each other, and besides, the perks – access to every fanbook ever made which featured Natsuki – were just too good to risk on Natsuki's possible reaction.

But that wasn't the secret that had Shizuru most worried. Over a year ago, when she'd been captured during the Wind Uprising, she'd taken advantage of Tomoe Marguerite's crush on her in order to effect her escape. Unfortunately, to do that she'd had to push the limits of remaining faithful to Natsuki. By her standards, she'd made it, but just barely. It had been Tomoe who kissed her, while she refused to reciprocate – at least, to anything like the degree she did with Natsuki – and later… well, at least she'd avoided having to have sex with the girl, which was enough of a victory, considering.

But if Natsuki had found out about that, and if she knew that Shizuru had been trying to keep this secret from her, then she'd certainly be furious. The fact that Shizuru had remained faithful to the best of her ability likely wouldn't matter too much, though Natsuki might at least focus her rage on Tomoe instead. But perhaps Natsuki had been contacted by Tomoe, and that girl might well have exaggerated what had happened…

_No._ Shizuru shook her head. Such a discovery would have made Natsuki immediately angry, and she'd confront Shizuru about it as soon as she could. She wouldn't have run away from a problem like this; it just wasn't in her personality. If she'd learned about it while Shizuru was out that morning, she might have even hunted her down and pulled her out of her meeting with Queen Mashiro to have it out with her.

Shizuru sighed and allowed a wry smile to cross her face. The pain of keeping that secret was starting to catch up with her. She really deserved that kind of treatment from Natsuki for it. It wasn't fair to keep something like this from her; she really deserved to know. Perhaps it was time she got it all out. She didn't want to move forward in their relationship with a heavy heart, and Natsuki certainly did seem intent on moving forward finally.

But that still left the problem of exactly what Natsuki was mad about now. With that possible explanation for Natsuki's departure ruled out, Shizuru was left with only the possibility that Natsuki was mad at her for something that had happened soon before she'd left, but wasn't quite as drastic as finding out about Tomoe. But what had she done wrong? Had her teasing gotten too much for the girl, perhaps? Natsuki did seem a bit more flustered than usual when Shizuru had given Arika a peck on the forehead earlier that day, but why would that get her so upset? Shizuru flirted with cute girls all the time, and Natsuki knew that she didn't mean anything by it, didn't she? It was just some harmless fun, and Natsuki was always so cute when she got jealous…

But there was a line between making her jealous and making her mad, and perhaps Shizuru had finally crossed it. It didn't really matter what the specific reason was for this particular incident pushing Natsuki over the edge; all that mattered was that it did. Or if it was something else she'd done, even if she couldn't think of it right now, it was still wrong if it hurt Natsuki. Nothing tore at her heart more than thinking that she'd somehow upset her love. She'd have to talk with Natsuki about this when she got back, so that she knew what exactly was the problem, and could then do whatever it would take to make things right – about this and her other secrets. She could only hope that Natsuki would choose one of their more enjoyable methods of punishment.

* * *

My life went into a tailspin in the wake of my encounter with Natsuki. Her actions simply made no sense to me with the way I was thinking at that time, and I couldn't just shrug off such an event as a simple oddity. I'd hurt her deeply, and so I couldn't just let things go. Her betrayed expression haunted my mind and tore at my heart. As much as I tried, I just couldn't shake it.

I went through the next day trapped in my own world, only making a token appearance at classes and the Trias meeting. I was so deep in my thoughts that I couldn't even hear all of Haruka-san's yelling through the meeting, even when she directed it at me for not paying attention to her. I think that meeting might have been the only time she ran out of steam on her own, as I just couldn't focus enough to help redirect her energy to something more productive.

Fortunately though, Haruka-san was the only one with the poor tact to try to engage me in conversation at all that day. The rest of the school soon knew about what had happened between me and Natsuki. No one really knew what to say about it, and so most simply left me alone. As for Natsuki… well, they really didn't have any option there. She spent the time holed up in her room, and it pains me to think of the depression she must have been going through.

I tried as much as I could to make sense of what had happened, but it was simply impossible under the current framework of my mind. I'd sorted the world out into two groups – those who were my fans and who wanted whatever they could get from me, and those who weren't. Natsuki was obviously a fan – there was just no way around that – so why wouldn't she want my touch?

I knew there were some other girls who respected and idolized me and yet didn't want that kind of contact, but I didn't really count them as my fans. They generally kept a greater distance when I was swarmed, and they were simply quiet and polite to me when we had a chance to interact. But they wouldn't be the type to ask to become my heya-gakkari, knowing exactly what that would entail. Natsuki certainly wasn't one of them.

To tell the truth, I think on some level I really knew what the problem was. As I reflected on Natsuki, images of my encounter with Anh a year ago flashed through my mind. I could see in her face the same expression I wore when Anh had nearly molested me, only much worse. Although I'd been able to keep Anh from actually going through with groping me, I'd never given Natsuki a chance to resist before I grabbed her breast. Even though she'd kept me from going any further, the damage was done.

I'd defiled an innocent girl because I was too caught up in myself to believe a fan of mine couldn't want that. I'd become Anh, only I didn't need alcohol to enable me, and I'd planned to go even further. That was the truth I didn't want to face. I struggled to justify things to myself to avoid coming to this realization. No one wants to admit to herself that she could have become something so terrible and done such a deed, but I was headed inevitably towards that conclusion. I was just desperately trying to keep myself away from it through flimsy rationalizations.

In the end though, I didn't quite get the chance to come to this conclusion completely on my own. I'm not sure whether it was better things turned out as they did or not; if nothing else, it got me there sooner. But I'm not sure if that was quite necessary for what happened later. Well, I guess I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here.

You see, Haruka-san wasn't the only one who chose not to leave me alone that day. A certain member of the faculty, Miss Maria Graceburt, had also heard of what had happened. Being the local disciplinarian, she naturally took it upon herself to handle me. Her fondness for making a surprising entrance led her to waiting until just after I'd passed her office while on my way back from classes to appear in the hallway, clearing her throat angrily behind me.

I'd never been in trouble with Miss Maria before, but I knew that sound full well, and it was obviously directed at me. I nervously turned around to face her, giving her a polite bow. "Miss Maria, what can I…" I started to say.

"Miss Viola." Her voice was perfectly steady, which somehow made it all the more frightening. I'd heard her disciplining other students, and she rarely had any qualms about showing her anger. It was disquieting, to say the least, to think how angry she must have been that there wasn't even a tone of voice appropriate for it. "We need to speak."

With that, she withdrew to her office. Unlike the younger girls who had to face her wrath, she at least spared me the dignity of being allowed to walk in under my own power, rather than being dragged by the ear. Or perhaps she simply wished for me to prolong my own torment in waiting for her verdict by staying out in the hallway longer of my own accord. It didn't really matter to me, though. To be honest, even facing Miss Maria's wrath, my mind was still stuck on Natsuki. I was still more worried about what I'd done to her and her reaction than whatever punishment I might face for it.

And so I didn't waste any time in following Miss Maria into her office. I kept my head low as I entered – not because I was trying to avoid offending her, but simply because I felt low – and so I didn't notice there was another person in the room until I sat down beside her. I glanced over at her, finding that she appeared to be close to my age, but she was wearing the uniform of a Wind University student. She also seemed to have an air of maturity about her, as if she'd had an Otome's training. That certainly didn't apply to her hairstyle, though, which appeared as if she simply let it go whichever way it preferred. It certainly wouldn't pass Miss Maria's standards. Deep within me, I idly acknowledged that she was pretty cute, but that small voice was quickly drowned out by another which said that she was nothing compared to Natsuki.

"I apologize for this, Miss Chrysant," Miss Maria said to the girl beside me. "I don't know what's keeping Miss Armitage, but I really need to handle this now. Would you mind waiting outside for a few minutes? The cafeteria is just down the hall if you wish to sit down."

"Oh, uh, don't worry about it," the girl next to me said as she got up. She gave Miss Maria a graceful bow, and then cast a quick glance in my direction. I wasn't sure what emotion might have been behind her glance, as I dropped my gaze as soon as I saw her looking at me. I was determined to remain in my own world as much as possible. "I think I'll just meet Armitage-san in the hallway, so don't worry if she doesn't come in. She shouldn't be much longer."

"Of course," Miss Maria said, nodding her head to the girl as she slipped out the door. Miss Maria then turned to me as she sat down behind her desk. She stared at me for a few long minutes before she spoke. "I assume you know why I asked you here, Miss Viola. Needless to say, I'm very disappointed in you."

I only gave a small nod in response. What would have been the point in saying anything? I could barely even justify my actions to myself anymore. After it became clear to her that I didn't have anything to say, Miss Maria continued. "I had quite high hopes for you," she said with a sigh. "Not simply as an Otome, but as a person of character as well. I didn't think anyone would be able to rein in Miss Lu, but somehow you managed it. I was quite impressed with how you handled her last year when you learned what she's like under the influence. It's just unfortunate that you've been on a decline ever since that moment. Although you may have mellowed her a bit, Miss Lu seems to have had much more of an effect on you, in much the wrong direction."

I still didn't have anything I could really say in response to this, but my mind flashed back once more to the girl I was a year ago. I imagined my younger self being victim to my molestation in place of Natsuki, and I knew that I would certainly have hated it, though perhaps not as much as Natsuki had. Had I really changed so much that I could have done something so terrible? What had happened to me…? The image of Natsuki's hurt face formed in my mind's eye and stayed there, haunting me. The thought of her pain finally broke through my resistance, and I could feel all my regret pouring out. I no longer cared about trying to excuse my behavior. I dropped my head down as I mentally cried, _Forgive me, Natsuki…_

"Shizuru?" The word caught me off guard and snapped me out of my thoughts. Both Miss Maria's sudden informality and the gentle tone of her voice were so uncharacteristic of her that I completely forgot about Natsuki as I stared up at the woman incredulously. She looked back at me with concern in her eyes for a moment, but then she reverted back to her normal self.

"You understand that sexual harassment is a very serious matter, Miss Viola," she said. I nodded hesitantly at this, still stunned by the rapid changes in her mood. "If I felt it necessary, I could have you expelled for this." Perhaps that statement would have shocked me if I were in a more normal state, but it didn't faze me much at that time. "But I think you're genuinely better than this, and I can see that you truly regret your actions, so I don't think such drastic measures are necessary."

I felt a bit of relief at that, but it oddly wasn't simply because I wasn't going to get expelled. For some reason, I think I was just relieved that Miss Maria could see that I regretted it. I didn't want to be a person who could do something like that without regret. I wished I wasn't a person who could do that at all, but it was too late for that. At least I could work towards being better in the future.

Miss Maria was silent for a bit, presumably waiting for me to say something. I honestly didn't have much I could think of to say, though. When it was clear that I'd have to say something or we'd sit here forever, I decided to broach a subject I'd been a bit concerned about, hoping that Miss Maria's information network might be able to give me a little clue. I dropped my gaze from Miss Maria and tentatively said, "Miss Maria… do you know how Kruger-san is doing?"

"Not well." A sharp pain hit my heart at that revelation. "She hasn't left her room all day. If I could hazard a guess, I'd say she's suffering from a mix of heartbreak, disillusionment, and betrayal. She'll pull through, but this is one of those character-forming times that could really affect who she grows up to be, depending on what happens in the next few days."

"Oh," I said. It felt to me that Miss Maria was hinting to me that I should do something, but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to talk to Natsuki easily. Talking to me was likely the last thing she wanted to do.

Miss Maria waited a bit, and when it became clear I had nothing more to say, she continued, "Alright, Miss Viola, I've decided on your punishment for this incident. You are tasked with gaining Miss Kruger's forgiveness for what you've done to her. Until you do, you are prohibited from selecting a heya gakkari."

I looked up at Miss Maria in surprise. This seemed unusually lenient coming from her, even if it did turn out to be impossible to get Natsuki's forgiveness. I was expecting something much more extreme, such as having to clean the campus grounds alone for a week. Why was she being nice to me, particularly for something as severe as this? "Um, is that it?" I asked tentatively, hoping I wasn't calling more down upon myself.

"You think I'm being lenient, Miss Viola?" Miss Maria said, an eyebrow raised. "If you feel you deserve more punishment, then feel free to discipline yourself however you see fit, but this is all I have for you. You may leave."

It took me a while to understand just why Miss Maria chose that particular brand of punishment. Only when I had responsibilities of my own, working alongside of her, did it finally make sense. Her goal wasn't to punish me. Obviously, part of her intentions were to help Natsuki get through this better, but that wasn't all. She wanted to help me grow, and she knew that simple punishment would never have done that. I had to learn to fix the problems I created, and I had to be humbled a little.

To gain Natsuki's forgiveness, I'd have to admit that I was wrong. I'd have to drop the façade of Shizuru-oneesama and approach her as simply Shizuru. The trick though was in figuring out just who Shizuru was. In a year of playing the role of an idol, I'd forgotten myself. Natsuki had seen a glimmer of who I really was behind that façade – even though nowadays she thinks that she was just being dumb and oblivious, my protestations to the contrary – and I would have to bring that person out again for her sake.

But I hadn't figured all of that out quite then. I'd need some more time to think to myself before I'd come to that conclusion. And so, still confused by Miss Maria's leniency, I hesitantly got up and made my way to the door. I half expected her to drop some extra pronouncement on me while I was on my way out, but none was coming. I let out a sigh of relief when the door to her office finally closed behind me, only to be stunned out of my thoughts by a yell from down the hall: "Gah! Leave me alone already! Festering me is no way to convince me to select you as my heya-gakkari!"

"_Festering"?_ The commotion at the end of the hall seemed to die down for a moment as the coral targeted by this outburst tried to puzzle this one out. After a moment, the answer came from a figure who I'd once more completely failed to notice right beside me: "Um, do you mean 'pestering,' Armitage-san?"

"What? Of course I…" Haruka trailed off at this. Discreetly glancing over at Haruka, I noticed that a slight blush had formed in her cheeks and she was nervously scratching the back of her neck. "Er, you would be Yukino Chrysant, I guess… I'm sorry I'm late, you see I…"

Yukino gave a pleasant chuckle. "Don't worry about it," she said, as she started walking towards Haruka.

I chose this moment to take my leave, deciding that it wouldn't be proper to eavesdrop on the two of them any longer, whatever they might be up to. I had quite enough to think about on my own. I was getting worried about how Natsuki was doing, and I figured it would be best if I at least apologized to her. I couldn't expect her to forgive me just yet, but I had to do what I could for her. The distraction provided by Haruka gone, I had started to once again feel the pain over how I'd hurt her.

* * *

_Never again. I swore that back then, didn't I? I'd do whatever I could to avoid hurting Natsuki like that again… but I've failed. I didn't think about how what I was doing was really affecting her. She has every right to be mad. I just hope she'll be able to forgive me again…_

Shizuru let out a sigh as she reached to the nightstand on the side of their bed and looked at the picture of Natsuki she kept framed there. Her mind superimposed the expression of hurt she'd seen on her beloved's face that morning over the smiling visage in the photograph. She reached a hand out instinctively to trace along Natsuki's face in the picture, trying to wipe away the pain.

"I'm sorry, Natsuki…" she said to the picture, wishing her love were there to hear it herself. With a sigh, she allowed herself to drop down to the bed. After a few moments sitting there, she laid back, catching sight of a silhouette standing in the doorway as she did so. Her heart started pounding rapidly in her chest as she recognized Natsuki and wondered how the woman had gotten in without her noticing. Had she been that engrossed in her own thoughts? But, no, that wasn't what mattered now. They needed to talk, to get this sorted out, to…

"And for that, love…" Natsuki said, walking into the room. The tone of her voice surprised Shizuru. There didn't seem to be any anger left in it. If anything, Natsuki seemed to be a bit pleased. When Natsuki got up onto the bed and climbed on top of Shizuru, the smirk on her face confirmed this. "…I'll be merciful."


	4. Saeko's Support

**Author's Note:** Decided to get back to the main story here instead of the special chapter, as I've just done two 10,000-word smut chapters in a row, and need a little break. Now, while the idea of taking a break from smut may seem like blasphemy, I do need it to formulate new ideas, so things don't start getting repetitive.

This chapter is dedicated to Ethnewinter, who recently suffered an injury to her hand which limits her ability to write. Get well soon, ma chere, but until then, enjoy reading!

* * *

**Title:** Oneesama

**Rating:** T

**Chapter 4:** Saeko's Support

* * *

"Lady Kruger, Miss Natsuki has arrived."

"Thank you, Fritz," Natsuki's mother said with a gracious smile. She made a few quick keystrokes, barely glancing at her computer as her eyes landed on the sight of her daughter. "You may leave."

The butler bowed and took his leave of the two women. Neither of them made a move until the door was closed behind him. When it did, the change in Saeko's features was immediate and drastic. It took her less than a second for her to go from Lady Kruger, the graceful and proud Countess of the island of Kruger, to Saeko, mother of Natsuki. Natsuki had learned to recognize the softening of her mother's features to show motherly concern, which never went away, no matter how much she grew or how many times she saved the world.

She was also, at this moment, very angry. "How long has this been going on, Natsuki?" she demanded, forgoing even a greeting as she rose from her desk to tower over her daughter as best as she could. It wasn't the perfect way to start of their first conversation in months, and it was particularly atypical for Saeko to forget about these simple formalities. If anything, it was a measure of just how upset she was.

Natsuki grimaced in a mix of shame and disappointment. She'd really been hoping that she'd be able to catch her mother before the news of her relationship reached her, but apparently she'd underestimated just how integrated the world was getting with the advances in technology, and how fast information was starting to travel. It had probably taken her mother only a day or two to find out, and then she'd had quite some time to stew over it before Natsuki arrived. It was only through her diplomatic tact that she hadn't called up Natsuki to ask what was going on in this time, knowing how busy her daughter had to be.

Natsuki knew from long experience with her mother that her best bet was to simply answer questions as she was bombarded with them and weather the reprisals as they came. However, there was a limit. There was no way she'd take any abuse about the fact that she had a relationship with Shizuru from her mother. If that resulted in a fight rather than her simply being scolded, so be it, but she wasn't going betray her relationship, however much her mother might be against it. She'd been preparing herself for this confrontation for years. She wasn't going to let her mother scare her into submission.

Shaking off her expression of shame, Natsuki looked up at her mother defiantly and responded to her question, "Since I was a Coral. We met early that year, and fell in love by the end of it."

Saeko's eyes narrowed. In a near growl, she said, "You've been in love with a woman for over five years, and you never told me about this?"

Natsuki's mind quickly started to analyze her mother's statement to figure out just how mad she was, and just how much of a chance she might have of convincing her to accept this. Her mother had struck the words "love" and "told" with heavy emphasis in her sentence... which wasn't as bad as it could have been. If she'd emphasized "woman," things would have been hopeless. With that small ray of hope, Natsuki took a breath and replied with the simply truth, "I was afraid of how you'd react. I remember hearing Father make some terrible comments about this type of relationship under his breath when I was younger."

Miraculously, Saeko's anger seemed to ebb at this. She relaxed enough to sit back down at her desk. "Oh," was all she said for some time. Natsuki took this chance to approach her mother and sit down at a chair across the desk from her. Eventually, her mother continued, "Your father and I have had more than our share of disagreements over the years, his affairs being only the most public of them. You don't have to assume that I always think the same way as him on these things."

Natsuki felt a flame of hope light up in her chest. It was true that she'd never heard her mother make any disparaging remarks about same-sex couples, but she'd just assumed she felt the same way as her father since she'd never made any effort to make her opinion clear otherwise. Also, since her father had absconded his duties to elope with his mistress and her mother had been left in power, she hadn't made any efforts to change the discriminatory laws in Kruger.

"So..." Natsuki said. "Is this one of those things then? Do you really not have any problem with me being in love with a woman?"

Saeko smiled at her daughter softly. "Let me just say this: When I found out about your relationship, the only thing that I found bothered me was that you'd never told me about it." Her gaze dropped from Natsuki's, and she turned to the side, talking off into space. A tone of regret laced her voice. "I never really thought about this issue before, to be honest. I just didn't think it would ever concern me. But while that means I never did anything to help correct matters when I could have, it also means that I have no problem with my daughter being a lesbian." She turned back to Natsuki and said, "I just want you to be happy, Nat-chan, and if Shizuru-san makes you happy, then you have my full support."

Joy started to fill Natsuki's heart, and she couldn't help letting a smile cross her face. "She does, Mother. Very much so." Certainly, the two of them had their disagreements, of which today's was on the rougher side, but there was no doubt in Natsuki's mind that she and Shizuru were meant to be together. They made each other's lives worth living. And now that she knew she could count on her mother's support, things were certainly going to work out. She'd certainly agree to the favor Natsuki had in mind.

Saeko gave her daughter a proud smile. She laced her fingers on the desk in front of her and said, "So then, let's fix this all now. Tell me everything about your relationship with Shizuru. Who is this woman who's captured my Nat-chan's heart?"

* * *

"Come on, Natsuki, you can't just lie in bed all day..." Mai said plaintively.

"Just watch me," I spat out. I hugged my pillow tightly against my body and buried my face in it once more. My headache was starting to hurt almost as bad as my heart by that time. I hadn't eaten or drunk anything since lunch the previous day, and with all the crying I'd done, dehydration was starting to get to me. At least it distracted me from my other issues. Or rather, issue. _Shizuru..._ I couldn't help letting out another sob as my thoughts plunged once more into their now-familiar cycle.

Why did all of this happen? None of Shizuru's actions seemed right. How could she not understand love? How could the top Otome-in-training be so utterly shallow? How could she take advantage of her fans like that? How could she be so unable to tell that I didn't want that? But perhaps the most troubling question to me was, why couldn't I just get over her? Why did my heart still insist that Shizuru should be better than what I saw her do, that this wasn't right, even for her?

This all would have been so much easier if I could have just gotten myself to reject Shizuru and accept that I'd been mistaken, but a part of me still wasn't willing to give up on my crush. My mind knew that I'd have to do so, and accept that Shizuru wasn't who I'd thought, before I could move on, but my heart just wasn't listening. Meanwhile, my brain was getting more and more concerned about the state of my body. I needed to drink something, first of all, and then eat. It was just impossible for me to will my body to move out of bed to do so.

"Alright, Natsuki, I didn't want to have to break this out, knowing what the results are likely to be once you're better, but desperate times call for desperate measures," Mai said from behind me. I just did my best to ignore her, though. I really just needed to be left alone. I hated having to share a room at times like these. Mai had been suitably sympathetic the day before, right after the incident with Shizuru, but her sympathy seemed to have started running out now, much unlike my depression.

It was only through the grace of Shinso – I had to remind herself to use that particular phrase, as Otome were supposed to. It wasn't coming naturally to me quite yet – that Mai's plan seemed to involve her leaving the room. I breathed a sigh of relief and once more snuggled up against my pillow. I wished that I could just stay in my bed like that for the rest of my life, and not have to face the rest of the school, which was surely mocking me by that point. Everyone else apparently knew just what was going on with Shizuru. I must have looked like a complete idiot to be oblivious to all of it.

Well, at least it wasn't absolutely everyone that saw me that way. Mai, at least, was on my side, even if she did now feel that I'd spent more than enough time in bed. She was probably right, anyways; it was just that it was still harder to move than it was to stay still. Mai did seem to have some idea in mind now that might work, but I was still at a loss as to what it was. I was simply content to take a break from my friend's nagging while it lasted, and then I'd deal with whatever Mai was up to when she got back.

I'm not really sure how much time passed until I heard the door opening behind me, alerting me that Mai had returned. The sound of the door was followed by another, much more enticing sensation though: a beautiful smell which almost caused me to roll over all on its own. It was the smell of food, a good deal of which seemed to be mayonnaise. If anything would be able to get me to move from my bed, it would be that.

However, for the time being, my pride kept me locked down. I didn't want to admit that I could be manipulated by mayonnaise so easily. My pride turned out to be a bit weaker than my addiction, though, when Mai stuck a finger right in front of my mouth. I'd stuck my tongue out and pulled the finger into my mouth with it, devouring the beautiful taste, before I even had a chance to stop myself and think about what I was doing. Sadly, my bliss in consuming my delight was soon interrupted by the sound of Mai's laughter coming from above me.

"Oh, now that was just priceless!" Mai said through her laughter. "You certainly have it in you to be quite adorable, Natsuki. Now come on." Mai slapped the side of my bed. "I made you some of my special mayo ramen. You can come to the desk and eat it, or I can feed it to you one finger-full at a time, possibly taking some pictures in the process."

I growled at Mai as she presented her ultimatum. The prospect of having pictures of me eating out of Mai's hand spread around school was not something I wanted to face – and I couldn't simply trust myself to not eat when mayo was that close, unfortunately – especially if Shizuru ended up seeing them...

That thought did it. I quickly rolled over and got off of my bed. I glared at Mai just long enough for her to get the message to pass the mayo (and the ramen it was served on) and back away. I immediately took the bowl and fork from Mai and started chowing down. The taste seemed to be better than anything I'd ever tasted before, even some of the best mayo I'd had. Perhaps it was simply because I was so hungry, or maybe it was Mai's cooking. Taking a moment to pause and simply focus on the taste, I decided that it had to be the latter. I decided that I'd have to talk to Mai about volunteering to work in the kitchen for her duties. Skills like hers were far too valuable to waste.

And just then, it was all over. I'd burned through the whole bowl in only a couple of minutes. I quickly looked up at Mai and said, "Where's the rest of it? You know one bowl is never enough, and you also know I haven't eaten in over a day."

Mai shook herself out of her stun from seeing me gobble down the ramen so quickly. She really should have been used to it by that point, though maybe I was a bit much for her. "The rest of what I made is still in the kitchen. I'll go get it for you, and something to drink...?"

"Orange juice."

"And some orange juice too then. Just promise me you won't go back to bed. You can take this chance to splash some water on your face or something; you could use the wash." Mai walked out right after saying this, barely giving me a chance to growl at her as she quickly left the room.

Rolling my eyes, I pushed myself off of my bed and stretched out my aching muscles. Mai was probably right, I admitted to myself. My body was starting to feel pretty grimy, and I thought I could even smell myself now. I'd definitely have to grab a shower as soon as I'd had some more to eat and drink. At least I wouldn't have to worry about others being in the showers to bother me at this time. Most girls seemed to always use them in either the evenings or mornings, so they were generally pretty clear this time of the afternoon.

For now though, I contented myself with just a quick wash, as it was all I would likely have time for before Mai got back. I braced myself at the door out to the hallway. I really didn't want to have to face anyone right now, so I prayed – to Shinso – that the hallway would be relatively clear. Catching my breath, I opened the door and headed out, making a quick break for the washrooms. I caught quick glimpses of figures in the hallway, including one in a Pearl uniform which made my heart pound in my chest at the thought of Shizuru, but I just turned my head down and pushed it all out of my mind until I reached the moderate privacy of the washrooms.

I let out a sigh of relief as I closed the door behind myself. I made my way to the sinks and splashed some water onto my face. After doing so, I looked up into the mirror and let out a groan at what I saw. I really appeared to be in horrible shape. My eyes were blood red, a sure giveaway that I'd been crying, and my face was pale and drawn. My hair was starting to look greasy and matted, reminding me that I really would have to take a shower right after I had some more to eat and drink.

I sighed once again. Well, I'd hopefully be looking better soon enough. I ran the tap again and took this chance to wash my face and hands. A little color was starting to return to my face, though not much quite yet. I gave a quick grimace and then headed over to the dispenser to grab a paper towel and dry myself off. I had to admit that I at least felt a little better physically after that, though I still had a pounding headache from my dehydration.

I didn't make quite as much effort on heading back to my room to avoid attention, but I did avoid making eye-contact with anyone as best as I could. Fortunately, no one seemed inclined to engage me in conversation, so I made the short trek back in peace. Mai hadn't returned yet, which wasn't too surprising, as it was quite a bit of a longer walk to the cafeteria than the washrooms. What was surprising was that, while she was out, someone had slipped a letter under our door.

Picking up the letter, I moved to sit down on my bed as I glanced at the envelope. My name was written on it in a neat, flowing script, which I didn't recognize at the time. So, it wasn't her mother or father who sent it then, I knew. With a mental shrug, I opened up the envelope – noticing that it wasn't sealed, so it couldn't have come from far – and read the letter inside.

_Natsuki-san,_

_I must really apologize for what I did to you and how I treated you yesterday._

So it was from Shizuru, then. I felt a sharp pain shoot through my chest as I realized this, just from the memories. But Shizuru was apologizing; that was good, right? Then why did it feel like my heart was dreading this?

_I really have no excuse for my actions. I should have known better. In fact, I was once in a position much like yours, having to fend off the unwelcome advances of my own Oneesama. I know just the pain it caused, and so I can imagine what you must be going through right now._

_You are most likely wondering how I could have changed from the victim to the aggressor in this time. To be honest, so am I, to some extent. Over the last year, my Oneesama had quite an influence on me, and she slowly turned me into a younger version of herself. That does not excuse my actions in the slightest, however. I should have known that I was acting inappropriately, from my own past experience._

_I wished to come see you in person today, but I ran into your roommate not long ago, and she told me what a state you were in thanks to me. I considered that perhaps my presence would not be to your benefit, so I decided to write you this letter instead of approaching you personally. I am not sure if this was the right choice, but I do hope this is more comfortable for you._

_I truly hope that you will able to find it in your heart to forgive me. We both must continue at this school for another year, and I would wish that we should have no tension between us in this time. If you cannot forgive me for this, then I can understand. If that is the case, then at least allow me to be the one to carry the awkwardness between us. You have done absolutely nothing wrong, Natsuki-san. I respect you for standing up for yourself as you did. You will make a remarkable Otome someday, I am sure._

_With respect,_

_Shizuru Viola_

I sniffed back a sob and wiped a tear from my cheek as my eyes scanned through the letter once more. Reading through all of this had brought a new pain to me. My chest felt like it was burning, and I wanted to just scream out from all the frustration. It wasn't fair! Just when I was getting better, Shizuru had to do this. How the hell was I supposed to get over her when she acted like this?

This was not how being disillusioned was supposed to work. I was supposed to realize that Shizuru wasn't who I thought and then get over her. Shizuru wasn't supposed to suddenly start acting like the person I'd previously thought she was. This just made everything more complicated, and it forced me to admit that she still bore feelings for the older girl.

"Damn you, Shizuru..." I said as I dropped back onto my bed while my heart fought a losing battle to try to get over Shizuru.

* * *

Natsuki opened the door to her apartment as quietly as she could, on the off-chance that she'd be able to surprise Shizuru. She was in quite a good mood after her talk with her mother, and she'd decided that she just couldn't put off forgiving Shizuru for her indiscretions any longer. She was just in too good of a mood. Granted, they still had some things they needed to work out, and her behavior today wasn't the only thing Natsuki had to be mad about, but she was confident that they could get through them easily enough.

Perhaps she'd even finally have a chance to properly "punish" Shizuru. Her lover seemed to quite enjoy "punishing" Natsuki during some of their lovemaking sessions, mostly for trivial, made-up offenses. Natsuki didn't particularly mind it – _Which is your way of admitting you get a little kick out of it, _her subconscious pointed out before it was squelched – but she very rarely was able to turn the tables on Shizuru. She just couldn't think up offenses to punish her for as well as her lover could. But now, she had some real offenses she could work through with Shizuru. It was the perfect plan to clear things up between them. Shizuru could work to earn her forgiveness, and the both of them would get one very enjoyable night out of it.

It was through the grace of Shinso then, that Shizuru seemed completely oblivious to Natsuki's entrance. Listening intently for signs of her love's presence, she caught the sound of footsteps coming from the direction of their bedroom. Walking carefully so as not to make a sound, Natsuki snuck up to the door to the bedroom and spied in on Shizuru. The woman was currently standing beside their bed, her fingers tracing over the picture of Natsuki she kept on the nightstand.

As her eyes focused on the image of her beloved, Natsuki spotted an expression of regret on her face. She'd been a bit worried that Shizuru might not have figured out why she'd run out like that, but Shizuru was pretty sharp when she wanted to be, so of course she'd have it figured out. Natsuki could feel a warmth start to course through her chest, just as it always did when her love for the woman before her was swelling.

"I'm sorry, Natsuki..." Shizuru said to the picture, still not realizing that Natsuki herself could hear her admission. The sound of it brought a small blush to her cheeks. She decided then to go through with her plans. They would work out everything tonight, and she would make Shizuru absolutely hers, body and soul. And then, in just a few days time, she would finally be able to put her plan into action.

Shizuru sighed and dropped down onto the bed. When she rolled over, she finally caught sight of Natsuki in the doorway. Her face formed an expression of surprise at first, and then one of apology. Natsuki didn't give her any time to talk, though. Shizuru was sorry, and so they'd be able to work through this, hopefully in a quite enjoyable way.

"And for that, love..." Natsuki said as she approached the prone woman. She climbed up onto the bed, and said as she looked down at Shizuru, "I'll be merciful." _But not so merciful to take all the fun out of it, of course._ "Now, assume the position you feel you deserve, and I'll be back to administer your punishment. If you're particularly obedient tonight, I might even have a little reward in it for you."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Next up will be a special side-chapter to resolve this night together, in an M-rated sidestory (so I can keep the rating of this fic down). Watch for it.


	5. Haruka's Pride

**Author's Note:** I'm glad that so many people enjoyed the special sidestory I wrote, but I should apologize to those who just aren't into that kind of thing. Lesson learned here was to give fair warning in the summary for that type of material, so people won't accidentally happen upon it and be turned off.

**Japanese Notes:**

_Bubuzuke_ – Kyoto-ben of "Ochazuke," which is a Japanese dish consisting of tea poured over rice, like milk on cereal (not that it tastes at all like that, just the concept is similar).

* * *

**Title:** Oneesama

**Rating:** T

**Chapter 5:** Haruka's Pride

* * *

"Mmm..." Shizuru let out a purr as she hovered on the twilight between sleep and wakefulness. An annoying beeping had broken her out of her dreams, but her lover had mercifully silenced it. Her dreams had been so beautiful. She was able to relive some of her most precious moments with Natsuki, and near the end, she'd even started dreaming of future ones.

For so long, Shizuru had been afraid that Natsuki was just too shy about their relationship to push it forward any further. She didn't even allow herself to dream about getting married to Natsuki or starting a family with her, for fear that she might start to be disappointed in her real life. Until last night, that is. Natsuki had finally come open about their relationship, and she was being sweeter than ever. Even in bed last night, Natsuki had seemed determined to resolve all the remaining sources of tension between the two of them – and then she relieved all the tension that doing that raised, resulting in what had to be the most powerful orgasm of Shizuru's life.

She was more in love with Natsuki than ever, and she was confident that the subject of her affection felt the same way. Her heart was confident that Natsuki was no longer afraid about moving them forward. She simply had to wait and let her love come to the conclusion herself and pick the perfect time. There might still have been a few legal barriers to overcome, but nothing could stop Natsuki on a mission.

Shizuru purred again at the fantasy of Natsuki out on a mission to change the laws and claim her heart, holding Queen Mashiro at gunpoint until she allowed them to wed. It probably wouldn't come to that, but it was a nice fantasy, nonetheless. As she played out this daydream in her head, Shizuru snuggled her head closer into the chest of her lover. She received a little squeeze in response, and Natsuki's arms patted her back lovingly.

Time passed slowly as Shizuru allowed herself to doze, safe in her love's strong arms. She wanted this moment to last forever, but the second alarm inevitably rung and ruined it. Natsuki's chest vibrated against Shizuru's forehead as she let out a growl at the alarm, and Shizuru felt another rush of warmth in her chest from sensing Natsuki's protectiveness. She tried to snuggle even closer to her protector, but Natsuki chose that moment to try to peel away, accompanied by a series of grumbles about her responsibilities.

Shizuru wasn't having any of it, though. "No..." She said weakly, still on the edge of sleep and trying not to pull herself too far from it. She uncurled her arms from her chest and reached out blindly to try to catch Natsuki. She lucked out with her lunge, wrapping her arms right around Natsuki's pelvis and causing her to fall back down onto the bed on top of Shizuru in a particularly compromising position. To Shizuru's delight, Natsuki didn't even let out a yelp as she was pulled back down, simply breaking out into loving laughter.

Shizuru had been planning to tell Natsuki to blow off her responsibilities, but she was quickly distracted by the intimate scent of her lover, now so close to her nose. Unfortunately, this was all the time Natsuki needed to grab Shizuru's wrists and pull them off of her to make her escape, Shizuru being too weak to put up a real fight. "I'm sorry, Shizuru, but I really need to get ready for work."

As Shizuru fell back down to the bed, she tried to pry her eyes open so she could at least observe the sight of her nude lover as she stood up beside the bed. The visage quickly brought Shizuru into an aroused state, and she wished Natsuki would simply pounce on her and take her right there. Sadly, it was not to be, as Natsuki started heading off to the washroom. Trying to stop her lover from escaping, Shizuru plead weakly, "Can't you blow it off for today, Na-tsu-ki...? Tell Miss Maria you're sick... and Natsuki-suki needs to stay in bed with..." A yawn broke through Shizuru's sentence, but she pushed through, trying to blink the sleep out of her eyes. "...Personal nurse Zuru..."

Natsuki paused in her step. She turned to face Shizuru, and her face showed an internal war taking place. Temptation, responsibility, defiance of said responsibility, love, more love, and finally a mischievous grin crossed her face before she quickly restored control and brought it back to neutral. "I'm sorry, but there's a pretty big project going on I need to attend to." Shizuru's heart sunk. She'd thought she'd had it upon seeing Natsuki's grin. "But it's Friday, so we can just push through this and then have the weekend all to ourselves. And if you can't hold yourself off until the end of the day..." The mischievous grin was back, and Shizuru's heart along with it. "Then just make sure you lock the door when you come in for tea."

Shizuru let out a giggle as she allowed herself to roll back onto the bed. Natsuki had never let them do it in the office before, despite constant pressure. She just considered the risk of being found out too great, and Shizuru had to accept that. Now, though... _Today should be fun._

Shizuru pulled up the comforter, which still held much of Natsuki's scent, and nuzzled her face into it. The scent of Natsuki and the still-exhausted state of her body soon sent her back into dreamland.

* * *

The bells rang, signaling the start of the period, which meant that the Trias' meeting also began. Normally, Haruka and I would have been accompanied by the third Pearl, Rosina Gallo, but she was disposed with a family emergency. Her aunt, Adriana Masella, the third column, had been seriously injured in a recent encounter with Aswad, and Rosina-san was the only family member near enough to take care of her until her sister could arrive.

Haruka-san, unsurprisingly, hadn't thought this was a sufficient excuse for Rosina-san to forgo her responsibilities, and she had originally wanted to have our meeting in the infirmary with Rosina-san, but Adriana-sensei had talked her down for her disrespect, even through her drug-induced haze. The sight was almost enough to break through my stupor and cause a smile to cross my face.

Haruka-san started her rants off within seconds of the bell ringing, but I wasn't really paying attention. My mind was just as absent as Rosina-san at that moment. I was still obsessed with Natsuki. I'd delivered my apology to her, but that didn't seem to have helped anything. I'd run into Natsuki in the hallway a couple days prior, and the look she'd given me was heartbreaking. I only got a brief glance before she walked past me, but her expression was furious. She explained to me much later that she resorted to showing anger to try to cover up her own confused emotions, but I didn't know that at the time, and so it just worried me even more.

It was at that point that I really should have started listening to my heart. It was telling me that the fact that Natsuki's anger hurt me more than seeing her depressed would have was important. It meant that I cared about what she thought of me, which meant that deep down, I was starting to fall for her and was wishing that she could forgive me. But if she was angry about it, forgiveness wasn't likely.

"It's settled! Shizuru! ...Shizuru!? Wait a second, are you listening!?"

I snapped back to the present, which was only marginally better than my brooding thoughts. My mind hadn't been listening to Haruka, but fortunately my ears had been. I quickly replayed her last through sentences through my mind:

"So, I've got an idea about the program for this year's enrollment battles. The two of us setting this straight with a battle would be best, huh? Yes! Nothing else will do. As I thought, an Otome needs power, skill and guts! And at that place, I will defeat you and become Pearl number one! Ah, I'm burning..."

"Ara, yes," I said once my mind had caught up with what Haruka-san had been saying. After an idle sip of the bubuzuke I'd brought along for lunch, I continued, "Is that what you want to do? But you know I'm always ready to give you the title of Pearl number one even without doing this..."

I tried to focus simply on my meal after saying this. Haruka-san was so obsessed with standing; I just couldn't understand it, myself. What did being number one have to do with any of our goals in becoming an Otome? The second Pearl had just as good a chance at being selected as the first, and that small difference wasn't going to affect any of the final decisions. Even while we were here, it carried no benefits for me. I had all the respect from the Corals I could want, except for one...

"You... get a grip!" Haruka-san slammed her fist down on the table, shaking the bowl of bubuzuke I'd prepared. I was used to her outrage, though, and this didn't faze me in the slightest. "Ever since that Coral, Natsuki, gave you the cold shoulder, you've become such a coward! Get a grip and realize your true feelings!"

Although none of Haruka-san's actions could have provoked a start in me, these words certainly struck a nerve. "My... true feelings?" I paused in my motion to take another sip and turned my eyes to Haruka-san.

"That's right!" Haruka-san slapped the table this time, which didn't disrupt the bowl quite as much. "You're always giggling as if you don't care, but your true nature is nothing like that."

I certainly didn't like where this conversation was heading. I might be having trouble sorting out my feelings, but I wasn't going to entangle Haruka-san in my problems. I also didn't trust any advice she might give. She'd proven herself to be almost unbelievably oblivious to the affections of many of her fangirls. If she couldn't notice that type of love, she certainly wasn't going to be any better in spotting it in me, behind the masks I was careful to keep up.

I couldn't simply tell Haruka-san to drop the subject, though. I'd been brought up to be much more subtle and tactful. Of course, that wasn't likely to work on Haruka-san, but I had to at least try. "Ara, Haruka-san," I said, placing my cup on the table and picking out a spare.

"W-what is it?" Haruka said.

I poured some of the bubuzuke into the cup and offered it to Haruka-san. It was what my parents had taught me to do for a guest who had overstayed their welcome. I just hoped Haruka-san would catch the hint, though I knew the chance of that was slim. "I know bubuzuke isn't your favorite, Haruka-san, but would you like some?"

"Thank you," Haruka said, grabbing the cup from me. She slurped it up greedily – and in a matter any Otome should have been ashamed of – which made me suspect she might have forgotten her own lunch today. She downed the cup quickly and then let out a content breath. "Another cup."

_Ara, I'm jealous... I wish I were this oblivious..._ I considered that Haruka-san was quite blessed to not have to worry as I did about this type of thing. Everything was simpler for her, with her black-and-white view of the world. It did later turn out that I was wrong about her on one count back at that time, though perhaps that's a story better suited for another time.

Haruka-san's fist hit the desk once more, harder this time. I watched in disappointment as some of the bubuzuke was spilled. "Enough!" Haruka-san said. "Come here and we'll settle this. You understand? Then, I have an _idea_!"

I was barely able to react as Haruka-san grabbed me by the fist and dragged me towards the door. I could have fought her off if I'd wanted to, but it just wasn't in me at the time. I'd trained myself to put up with her mood-swings, and fighting her off wasn't a good choice in the best of circumstances. I just wanted to collapse into myself and hide out from the world, and so I put up a mask of serenity and ducked behind it. For all the world knew, being dragged across campus by Haruka-san was perfectly normal for me.

If I'd paid much more thought to what Haruka-san was up to, I would have been completely baffled when she took me outside and across the greens to the Corals' dormitory, but instead I simply followed along distractedly, impatient for her to get this over with. Haruka-san first led me to the cafeteria, and she spent a minute storming through until she was satisfied that whatever she was looking for wasn't there.

This was followed by Haruka-san proceeding through the hallways and up to the second floor. The location we were in finally broke through my haze and a pang of fear struck my heart. I prayed to Shinso that Haruka-san wasn't taking me where I feared, but it was to no avail. When we reached the door, she didn't even bother knocking before barging in.

"Natsuki Kruger! You're here, right?" Haruka demanded.

I caught sight of Natsuki sitting at her desk, picking at her lunch as if she were taking all of her frustrations out on it, just before Haruka-san's words made her snap to attention and turn around. "Y-yes!" she said. She was the model of the perfect, obedient Coral up until she caught sight of me behind Haruka-san. Our eyes caught for an awkward moment and I tried to plead for her forgiveness in my expression.

The sound of Corals screaming from behind me broke this connection, though. I internally struggled with deciding whether I should be relieved that this interruption saved me from that awkward moment or if I should be embarrassed that this now had even more witness. I eventually settled on embarrassment, but I tried to put up my best mask to limit the shame.

"Huh..." Haruka-san said, as she turned to noticed the gathering Corals behind us. She shrugged them off and turned back to Natsuki. "I know I'm a bit late with getting to this, but... I've decided for you to become my heya-gakkari."

My mask was officially shattered with this statement. I stared at Haruka-san in shock, and then at Natsuki, who seemed to be in just as much shock. "Eh? Haruka-san, you can't..." I started to plead with her on instinct. All the worries in my mind were pushed away with the certainty that I did _not_ want Natsuki to end up as Haruka-san's heya-gakkari.

"So what?" Haruka-san said, smirking at me. "You're too late, so too bad." I stared at her with a pleading expression on my face for another moment before she continued. "Ah, wait... At the enrollment battles, how about a challenge? Whichever of us wins will make this girl her heya-gakkari."

If I were thinking straight at the time, I would have realized that Haruka-san must have had that planned all along, since she asked for us to settle it earlier. I would have then gone on to figure out that such a plan couldn't have come from Haruka-san, and had to stop there in bewilderment. But none of those thoughts passed my mind at the time. All I knew was that I had to win that battle, and then pray to Shinso that I could achieve Natsuki's forgiveness so that Miss Maria would allow me to take her as my heya-gakkari.

"Very well, Haruka-san," I said, to a chorus of squeals from our audience.

* * *

It was a couple more hours before Shizuru's alarm woke her up. She didn't have quite as demanding a regular schedule as Natsuki, but she made it up through some extended missions. She would have much preferred to simply have a demanding, daily schedule like her love, so she wouldn't have to spend time apart like that, but it simply wasn't in the cards.

With her extra hours of sleep, Shizuru was much more alert now. She fished around on the bed for any notes or mail Natsuki might have left her. Finding a couple pieces of paper by her side, Shizuru pushed herself up to sit against the headboard while she read them over.

The first was a beautifully decorated card. The edges were embroidered with gold trim, with the seal of Aries in the corners. The text in the center read, against a backdrop of the Aries capital's skyline, "President Yukino Chrysant and Brigadier-General Haruka Armitage would like to cordially invite you..."

Shizuru flipped open the card. A small note fell out, but she went ahead and read the inside of the card first: "Meister Shizuru Viola and Gakuencho Natsuki Kruger, to attend their private wedding in approximately three months time. As the wedding is a closed affair, please contact President Chrysant directly to confirm your attendance and be informed of the location and date."

Shizuru let a smile cross her face at this. Apparently Natsuki wasn't the only one who'd decided to seize life and love after the recent events. Yukino certainly must have rushed to push through the necessary legal changes this soon after her election, though the momentum from her landslide win would have helped there. _Congratulations, Haruka-san. You've found quite the impressive fiancée there._

Placing the card on her nightstand, Shizuru unfolded the note that was enclosed. Haruka's distinctive handwriting read, "Ha! I win this one, Miss Bubuzuke! And as my victory prize, you'll have to be my maid of honor and watch me get married while your little pup is still too afraid to propose! Um... please?"

_Insulting my Natsuki is not a good way to make me want to be your maid of honor, Haruka-san. However, perhaps by then I'll have the chance to prove you wrong. We shall see._

Shizuru placed Haruka's note with the card and read the last item Natsuki had left from her: a note from her beloved. "Mai called up, said she needed you at Cat God Mountain to mediate some negotiations with the Shwartz. Guess you'll be missing tea today... I'll try to make it up to you when you get back. Love you, Shizuru."

Even through the disappointment of having to miss her tea with Natsuki, Shizuru let out a small smile at Natsuki's words. She used to be much more terse in her notes. This was the first time Shizuru could remember her ever stating her love in one of them. Natsuki was growing sweeter by the day, and Shizuru's love was growing with her.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Went into a bit of a depression as I got near the end of writing this, thanks to two really heartbreaking things happening in the same day. I hope I didn't let it affect the story too much. I've got the plot already outlined in my head, and I don't plan to let my own mood change it.

Much thanks and huggles to Shiznatnoyume for betaing this for me!


	6. Mai's Friendship

**Author's Note:** Thanks to everyone who sent their support on my last chapter. I'm just sorry I couldn't get this one out faster, but you should all really enjoy it, I hope.

* * *

**Title:** Oneesama

**Rating:** T

**Chapter 6:** Mai's Friendship

* * *

Natsuki allowed herself to linger a few minutes before she left for work. It was quite the task to tear herself away from the sight of the blissfully sleeping Shizuru. It was often a bit hard to do this in the morning, but her heart was working overtime today in anticipation of her plans for this evening.

Letting out a sigh, Natsuki realized that she really did have to get going at this point. She placed her note and the wedding invitation down on the bed near Shizuru and leaned down to give her love a last kiss on the cheek. This prompted a delicate purr from Shizuru as her smile widened ever so slightly, nearly causing Natsuki's heart to shatter from adoration. She had to fight to tear herself away again.

It wasn't until Natsuki had exited the bedroom and closed the door behind her that she could rest and let out a sigh of relief as Shizuru's magnetic pull on her heart started to fade. After she was stabilized, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and typed out a quick message: "BEGIN OP. GREEN MAYO." She scrolled through her contacts list and picked out her fellow conspirators, sending them the message and praying that they all got it in time to get their parts done.

Lastly, Natsuki punched the speed-dial for Mai as she started heading off to work. She had to at least be aware of the excuse Natsuki used for keeping Shizuru occupied, even if she couldn't get Shwartz to play along and had to improvise.

"Mai," Natsuki's friend said as she answered the phone.

"It's Natsuki. Today's the day."

* * *

The enrollment battles were the first major event of the Garderobe school-year. It was the first time most of us Corals got to see a real battle between Otome in person. Various Pearls had been paired up for fights, along with a few other interesting events, such as a two-on-two match and a four-Pearl free-for-all. The final fight of the night was even going to feature two Meister Otome, one of them being the Gakuencho herself. The other was supposed to be the Third Column, but Adriana-sama had been injured just a week ago and was still in recovery, so it remained to be seen who would be taking her place.

Aside from the final battle, the most anticipated was the introductory battle, between the top two Pearls. Although this was generally a big deal in most years, their added bet this year just made everyone even more anxious to see the outcome. I had to fend off approximately one third of the whole school who wanted to know what I thought of the whole thing. Eventually I decided that I just wanted it all to be over so I didn't have to deal with those questions anymore.

"Ah, it's just like a novel," Mai said from next to me. She'd been the most relentless about asking me how I felt about this, and the only one I could never shut up. Glancing over at her, I noticed that she appeared to be starry-eyed as she was lost in fantasy-land, prompting an eye-roll from me. "'A life-or-death battle where the fate of the school's next-generation celebrity, Natsuki Kruger, is waged. Drawn into that vortex, our heroine still remains silent,' huh?"

I tried to get Mai to shut up by will alone, glaring at her, but I really don't know why I bothered. My glare never really did work on her.

Mai just ignored my glare and nudged me, trying to provoke some more positive reaction. "It's incredible! You're like a heroine in a drama, Natsuki..."

"Stop it!" I spat at her. _Why did all of this have to happen to me?_ I wondered. I didn't come to Garderobe hoping to be at the center of all this drama. I just wanted to become an Otome and go back to serve my family and make my parents – well, my mother at least – proud. I wished I'd never developed a crush on Shizuru and idolized her like that; it would have made things so much simpler, and my heart wouldn't ache so much.

"Say, Natsuki..." Mai said, ignoring my requests for her to stop, as she always did. "What do you wish for? Do you want Shizuru-san to win? Or rather... Haruka-san?"

I let out a grunt. I'd been avoiding this question ever since the wager was first made, but Mai just wouldn't let up. The frustration of the whole thing was finally starting to get to me. "Who cares..." I said, though I really should have listened to the pain building up in my heart at that moment.

"Natsuki..." The pleading tone of Mai's voice tugged at my heart. I knew I was lying to myself, and she probably knew it as well.

"Because Shizuru-Oneesama is that kind of person..." I said, in a last-ditch attempt to justify not caring, more to myself than Mai at this point. I had to keep my heart from hoping for Shizuru to win, because it wouldn't be able to stand being broken again. "It doesn't matter anymore..."

"But... you've come this far!" Mai said. "It's you who should be with Shizuru-san! You were just being egotistic in dreaming of an ideal Shizuru, so it's your own fault that you got disillusioned with the real one. And that Shizuru thinks all her fans to be the same, is that the reason for you being like this? She already told you she'd realized she was wrong in that..."

"Mai..." I pleaded. I did not want to go back into a depression in a public place like this, so I really didn't need her pushing me, not now. I glanced around the stands near us, but fortunately no one seemed to be listening in. It was just a matter of time, though, before someone around us tried to butt in.

Mai let out a sigh and shook her head. "Fine then. Perhaps I should try my best to become Shizuru's heya-gakkari, if you won't. That lovely smile of hers did intrigue me a bit..."

"What? No way!" I said. The thought of Mai taking Shizuru away from me was just too much for my heart to take. It had decided at that moment that I needed to take my chance with Shizuru. I still didn't know much about who she really was, but that was how all relationships started out. My heart was telling me this was right, if the two of us could break through all the facades we'd put up.

"Is that so?" Mai said. She had to struggle to hold back a gleeful smile from crossing her face, but she still failed. "Then go, Natsuki. You can still catch her before the match starts."

"Huh? But..." What was I going to say? What was I getting into? I know she'd apologized, but did she really want me? Well, she had agreed to the challenge...

"Don't think, Natsuki! Just run!" Mai shoved me out of my seat with this. I struggled for something more to say to her, but in the end I decided on a simple nod. She was right, the words would come to me. Shizuru just needed to know that I wanted her to win.

I rushed my way through the stadium, trying to work back through my memory to my first few days here when I'd gone on a tour of it so I could find my way to the waiting rooms. I lucked out with seeing a couple of Pearls wandering around when I got close. Not caring anymore about what people thought, I grabbed the hand of one of the Pearls and spun her around, saying, "Shizuru... where is she?"

The Pearl's eyes flashed in confusion for a couple seconds, but then she seemed to recognize me. "She's at the east gate, about to enter the field," she told me. "You'll have to hurry."

"East gate?"

The Pearl pointed me to a door across the room. "That door, go left and run; it's the first right. And good luck."

I nodded and mumbled thanks to her before continuing to run. The path past the door curved around until I reached an opening. A flash of chestnut caused my heart to scream out in my chest and I stumbled to a stop.

"Shizuru-Oneesama!" I said. I could feel my heart pounding rapidly in my chest, and I was almost bursting at the seams with excitement. All my instincts were telling me that this was right.

Shizuru turned to me slowly. Her face seemed to convey a touch of surprise, though she was trying to cover it up as best as she could. "Natsuki-san?" she said, her voice tinged with nervousness.

Remembering Mai's earlier advice, I shut off my mind and just let the words spill out. "I... please make me your heya-gakkari!"

"Ara..." Shizuru's eyes blinked rapidly as she processed this. Not willing to take the chance that she'd find something to worry about, I rushed to continue.

"I... I want to know so much more about you! Not about the fake you that I willfully constructed, but about the real you!"

Shizuru was silent for a long minute as she stared back at me in wonderment. I was nervous as hell while I waited, but I was blessed with a truly rare sight which helped to take my mind off of that. Slowly, a pink tinge filled Shizuru's cheeks. It was the first time I'd ever seen her blush, and I absolutely adored the sight. Making it even more special was the knowledge that I was likely one of a precious few who had seen it.

"Natsuki..." Shizuru said eventually. Her voice seemed almost choked up, but she pushed through. "If you can forgive me for my earlier indiscretion, then yes, I'll be your Oneesama."

The excitement caused a blush to form in my own cheeks, and I nodded happily. I heard what sounded like a whimper from Shizuru which caused me to look up at her in concern. "Shizuru-oneesama...? Is something wrong?"

"Wrong? Ara, no..." She said. She tightened her lips into and said in explanation, "Natsuki's just so cute when she blushes..."

Naturally, this caused yet another blush to cross my cheeks, which I regretted almost immediately. She must think I was trying to be cute for her! Er, wait, don't I kind of want her to think I'm cute? But no! Not if it means she'll be trying to make me blush all the time!

A melodic giggle broke me out of my internal debate. I looked up to see Shizuru trying halfheartedly to cover up her laughter. Eventually she got it under control, though, and she said, "Forgive me, but Natsuki was just being too adorable. I'm sorry, I really should try harder, since Natsuki was sweet enough to give me a second chance..."

I shook my head fiercely at this. "No!" At Shizuru's shocked expression, I quickly explained, "I mean, I wanted to know who you really are, so if this is it, then well... I'll have to learn to live with it. Just don't get grabby again. That isn't really you anyways, I'm sure."

For the second time in my life, I was treated to what would eventually become my favorite sight in the world: Shizuru's blush. "Natsuki..." she said.

Before Shizuru could say anymore, a voice called out from the stadium, "Shizuru! You're up now, come on!"

Shizuru turned towards the source of that voice. "Thank you," she called out. "I'll be right there." She turned back to me and said, "Ara, it's time for me to go win the privilege of having Natsuki-san as my heya-gakkari. I'll see you soon."

I nodded at Shizuru as she started to turn away. "Good luck, Oneesama!" Shizuru gave me a small nod and a sweet smile that nearly caused me to faint as she walked off.

Fortunately, I quickly recovered once Shizuru was out of sight, so I was able to rush back to my seat before I missed too much. The girls in the stands seemed to be getting more excited, so I suspected that an announcement had been made while I was out of earshot. I reached my seat just in time to here the Gakuencho announce, "Then, let's begin the enrollment battles!"

Mai looked over at me as I sat down. She must have been able to read my face, as a knowing smile broke out on hers. "It's starting," she said simply.

"Yeah..." I replied. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. I tried to reassure myself that there was no way Shizuru would lose. She'd gained the rank of first Pearl after all, so that had to mean she was stronger than Haruka-san. Even though I could assure myself that she'd win, I was still anxious for it to actually happen. For me, her victory would mark the point where our relationship could truly start.

"Trias number one, Shizuru Viola!" And there she was, standing on a pillar which rose out the ground into the stadium. She was the perfect image of an Otome: beautiful, graceful, and with a sense of her strength lying just below the surface. The stadium erupted into cheers for her, along with a more-than-healthy dose of squealing. I couldn't help but join in with cheering for her, though I limited myself to clapping and shouting encouragement.

"Trias number two, Haruka Armitage!" Another chorus of cheers and squeals erupted as Haruka-san rose into the stadium. While Shizuru had simple stood there gracefully and given a slight bow, Haruka waved frantically to her fans and tried to egg them on until her cheers were even louder than Shizuru's.

When the cheering had quieted in anticipation of the signal to begin, Haruka took this chance to call out to Shizuru, loud enough for most of the stadium to hear thanks to its acoustics, "You finally got in the mood to do this, huh... Then come on! Give all you've got! I'll be giving my breast as well!"

There was an instant of stunned silence in the stadium before a girl sitting to Mai's right yelled out, "It's 'I'll be giving my _best_,' Haruka-chan!"

"I know that!" Haruka yelled back irately, and I thought I could see a touch of a blush on her cheeks, though it was hard to tell from that distance.

Mai, being the incessantly – and often annoyingly – social type, of course decided to take this chance to chat up the girl next to her. "Excuse me... are you a friend of Haruka-oneesama?"

"Ah, yes," the girl said, turning to shake Mai's hand. "My name is Yukino Chrysant. I'm a fourth year at Windbloom University."

"Mai Tokiha," Mai responded. "A fourth year, you say? You don't look much older than us..."

"Well, being able to study abroad, I tried do it as fast as possible..." Yukino explained. She caught my eye at this point and reached out to shake my hand. "Moreover, could you, by any means, be Natsuki-san?"

"Uhm... why?" I asked as I took her hand.

"I knew it! I had a discussion with Haruka-chan... She said that a friend of hers was troubled because of an underclassman, and neither of them was willing to listen to anyone. She tried a lot of things, but nothing worked... That's why I..."

"Wait," Mai said. "Are you saying that you're the one who gave Haruka-oneesama the idea to ask Natsuki to be her heya-gakkari?"

"Er... did that cause trouble?"

"No..." I said. She was right after all. Neither Shizuru or I had really been doing much about our situation. We both really needed our friends to help us face our true feelings, and apparently a friend of a friend to set the whole thing in motion. "Thank you very much, Yukino-san."

Yukino smiled and waved it off. "It's nothing really. Just one of many things Haruka-chan and I talked about this week."

"You seem to be actually serious about this." The sound of Haruka talking again drew our attention back to the arena. "I must be able to defeat you at your full power in front of everyone, or else it won't mean anything."

"Thank you," Shizuru replied. Her voice held fierce determination now. "But, I will take Natsuki."

"Do whatever you want," Haruka said. "However, if I win..."

"Begin!"

Haruka cut straight into a battlecry as the match started. She didn't waste a moment in charging at Shizuru, who simply stood there calmly for the first couple seconds while Haruka crossed the distance. The only indication on her end that the battle had begun was the charging of her robe, as it gradually became lit up. For a split second, I was afraid that Shizuru wouldn't be ready for Haruka's attack in time and that she would be hit by it – and, knowing Haruka's reputation for strength, possibly also knocked out already.

I really needn't have worried. I should never have doubted Shizuru, even for that moment. In fact, I think every single person in the stadium underestimated just what she was capable of. Even when watching the numerous replays later, what she accomplished seemed to stretch the limits of what was humanly possible.

It took watching the replays many times at varying speeds in order for me to piece together exactly what happened after that point, it all passed so quickly. Shizuru leaped forward and slightly to the side in an instant. As she was moving, she materialized her element in her hands and extended it into a chain. At the time, I was still just learning about elements and how Otomes could use them, so this was the part that took me the most time and help from others to figure out. All I knew initially was that somehow she'd formed a chain which Haruka slammed into and which quickly wrapped around her.

Caught in the deathgrip of Shizuru's element and propelled by her own momentum and the still-firing thrusters of her robe, Haruka had already lost the match. Shizuru was able to angle her downwards with the slightest twist, sending her crashing head-first into the pillar Shizuru had been standing on a moment ago. Beside me, Yukino let out a concerned "Haruka-chan!" and we could see on our screens that the single hit took out a good 15 of Haruka's robe's durability.

Shizuru kept Haruka spinning in a circle, crashing her through a succession of pillars until she'd cleared the area around her and Haruka's durability had dwindled to 32. Shizuru only started spinning faster then. She started to generate winds around her with her robe, forming a vortex with herself at the eye. It took me a bit to realize that Shizuru had actually started to spin in the opposite direction from how she was whirling Haruka around, rapidly passing the element between her hands. As the winds followed Shizuru, this meant that Haruka was being swung directly into them and being hit by the numerous loose rocks and chunks of the pillars that Shizuru's vortex had picked up, her durability slowly being chipped away.

Once Shizuru seemed to have reached her limit, she changed her tactic and started swinging Haruka in what at first seemed to be a haphazard manner while circling around in the winds herself. However, her intent there was to generate a funnel of wind blowing downwards in the center of her vortex – a fact which took many replays to become apparent. When it was fully formed, she whipped Haruka into it just as she released her element and jumped on top of her. A blast of energy burst from her feet, combining with the winds and the momentum of Haruka's swing to send her plummeting downwards at a pace too fast for the naked eye to follow.

Dust billowed out from Haruka's crash, with the sounds of Yukino's concerned whimpering barely being audible barely entering my consciousness. "Trias number one, Shizuru Viola, is victorious!" The Gakuencho announced. Our screens flashed the results: Shizuru had won with 100 of her robe's durability intact in a mere 17 seconds. We later checked the records of past battles and found out that this set a record only rivaled by one of Lena Sayers' battles, which was over in only 10 seconds but which had caused her own robe to overload and lose most of its durability.

As the dust cleared, Shizuru was revealed hovering serenely in the center of the arena, a graceful smile on her face. She spun around slowly until she came to face me, when she stopped and allowed a rare genuine smile to spread across her face. As I met her eyes, she brought a hand up to her mouth and gently blew me a kiss. The sounds of the crowd in reaction to her win and this action would have been deafening if I'd paid it any attention. All that crossed my mind was the sensation of a blush rising to my cheeks and one of the happiest realizations in my life.

Shizuru Viola was now officially my girlfriend.

* * *

"I hate Mondays," Midori al Aswad muttered as her friend, Youko Helene, delicately opened the casing on the REM she wore on her wrist. She sighed and leaned back, resting her head against her free hand.

"It's Friday," Natsuki said, perhaps a bit more harshly than Midori deserved. Still, it was very important to her that today was Friday, so she could have the entire weekend together with Shizuru after tonight. The fact that she still had to work was also contributing to her frustrations, though it could have been worse. At least she was lucky enough to be able to work on the final steps of a special project today, which was a fair bit more interesting – not to mention it would be useful for an extra surprise for Shizuru.

"Right, whatever," Midori said, glaring back at Natsuki for a moment before rolling her eyes.

Youko continued working on opening a particularly delicate part before she had a moment to spare concentration on the conversation. "Don't mind her, Gakuencho. We just have weekly appointments on Mondays, and that's all she can think of to start conversation. If you hadn't interrupted her, she would have continued by insisting that it isn't this part of the day she hates; it's just how everyone else acts, like they don't have to pull their all into work since they just got off of a weekend."

Midori smirked awkwardly at this. "Am I really that predictable? Must be getting into a rut. All this peace wears on me."

"Peace?" Natsuki said. "We're barely two weeks off of a world-threatening crisis."

"Two boring weeks," Midori replied. "And a boring year before that in which I fell into a rut. Not that I was even able to do that much to help out. Even when the five Columns were mostly out of commission, did anyone come asking me to help fill in the gap? Nope. But now, when you need a peak at Aswad's secrets, here I am."

"You really just need to learn to enjoy life itself, Midori," Youko admonished her friend. Finished with her work, she started closing up Midori's REM. "Just look at our Gakuencho, the famed Ice Queen of Garderobe..."

"Hey!"

Youko smirked at Natsuki's outburst. "Fine, the famed Ice-Queen-who-isn't-Miss-Maria." Natsuki growled at this, but Youko ignored her and continued. "When the world's in crisis, she leads the defense, but she knows just how to relax with her love when it's all over. It actually seems that things have been quite eventful between her and the Graceful Amethyst these last weeks, including a very special question today that she's really going all out for."

Natsuki's eyes widened at the revelation that Youko knew about her plans. She'd wanted to keep things as secretive as possible to make sure nothing slipped to Shizuru. "How'd you...?"

"Don't worry," Youko said. She picked up the ring she was working and turned to Natsuki. "I haven't told anyone. It's just that Sara needed a _very_ good reason for what she wanted me to do. And with Irina needing to make up an excuse to get off of work, you really should have just told me you were planning to propose today in the first place."

"Propose... wait..." Midori looked over at Natsuki, idly rubbing her wrist. "Does that mean you and the Third Column are...?"

Natsuki stayed silent while she tried to internalize her frustration and not snap at Youko. It was still awkward seeing other people discuss her relationship, even if they weren't judging it. She used to really hate feeling like she was on display like this, but it was becoming more tolerable with time. She had no choice but to learn to live with it now, though. It was all out in the open and there was no turning back. She couldn't try to convince people that she was just Shizuru's heya-gakkari like she did back in school.

"You didn't notice?" Youko asked incredulously, turning back to Midori. "It's been all they can talk about on the news, even pushing out the reports on the aftermath of the battles. Shizuru and Natsuki – or 'Shiznat' as they've started to call it – is the biggest thing of the century."

Midori grunted and shrugged. "Eh, not my thing."

"Well, I've had enough of your moping. We're going out tonight, and I'm going to teach you how to enjoy peace to the fullest. And no saying 'no'; I'll drag you if I have to."

"You will have to if you plan to drive," Midori retorted.

"Ugh, will you two shut it already?" Natsuki let out, exasperated. "You sound like you're married."

"Sorry, just making up for lost bickering time," Youko said. "Now come on, Midori, let's try out the prototype."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Happy birthday (August 15th) to Natsuki, in case I don't get anything else up before then. Her present, in this chapter, is Shizuru as a girlfriend, and as a fiancée very soon.

And again, much thanks to Shiznatnoyume for betaing!


	7. Natsuki's Love

**Author's Note:** Well, we're coming to the end of this fic, but that in no way means I'm stopping. I still have many other ideas to write, which includes continuing where this story leaves off, in both the past and present. There's also another entry for Oneesama Sidestories I have planned, which will also tie in with Ascension Reborn. It's been too long since I've written a good smut scene, don't you think?

Anyways, sorry for the wait in getting this out, but I hope that the Ascension updates and the size of this chapter (double the length of the average Oneesama chapter) will make up for it.

* * *

**Title:** Oneesama

**Rating:** T

**Chapter 7:** Natsuki's Love

* * *

Shizuru dematerialized her robe just as her feet gently touched the ground outside the Column's complex, where she and Natsuki shared their living quarters. The outdoor lights detected her presence and flicked on, compensating for the vanishing rays of sunlight. Shizuru waited out front for just a moment, allowing her eyes to readjust from her flight in the dim dusk light so she wouldn't end up with a headache as she walked indoors. She made a mental note to talk to Youko later about whether it might be possible to install some form of lights onto their robes.

As her eyes adjusted, Shizuru noticed a very odd shape just inside the doorway. At first glance it looked like a rough five-pointed star, though when the two arms bent inwards to hold the center stalk she recognized it as the form of Professor Gal supporting her apprentice, Irina Woods, on top of her. She had to suppress the urge to tease Irina about this – old habits die hard – and instead put up her authoritative mask as she entered the building.

"Good evening Irina-san, Gal-sensei," Shizuru said with a nod of her head as she opened the door. "You should consider yourselves lucky that Natsuki wasn't the one to catch you two behaving in such a manner. You know well how she feels about such displays."

"Ah, no," Gal said, raising up a finger as she spoke to Shizuru. "Gakuencho has had a 'Change of Heart' about this. She says, a little professor-student bonding is just what Garderobe needs at a time like this, in a 'Time for Rebuilding.'"

"Yup!" Irina said. She replaced the ceiling panel she'd removed and jumped down from Gal. "Besides, it's a lot more convenient than grabbing a stepladder when I need to do some work in the ceiling."

"Ara, well if it's alright with Natsuki, then it's alright with me," Shizuru said, unable to help smiling to herself. It was quite pleasant to see that Natsuki's good cheer as of late had extended to her allowing some leeway to the other residents of Garderobe. "I'll leave you two to finish with your work then." Shizuru gave the two a polite bow and proceeded towards her apartment.

"Alright. Thank you, Shizuru-sama!" Irina said from behind her.

Shizuru made it only a couple of steps down the hall before her cell phone rang from her pocket with the distinctive tone she'd selected for Natsuki. Not bothering to mask the smile this caused – even when she noticed Carla Bellini coming down the hall with a bundle of wires over her shoulder, presumably helping out Irina and Gal – Shizuru raised the phone to her ear. She spared Carla only a quick nod as she walked past and concentrated on Natsuki. Her subconscious thought it was a bit odd to see Carla around here helping out, but she wasn't going to worry about that now.

"Ara, was Natsuki getting worried about me?" Shizuru said as she answered the phone.

"Shizuru..." Natsuki replied, breaking off into a light chuckle.

"Don't worry, Natsuki-suki. It was a long day, but I'm almost home now. I'm sorry I couldn't be back earlier, but it seemed that Mai kept finding new things she needed my help with."

"It's alright, Shizuru," Natsuki said. Shizuru imagined Natsuki blushing just a bit at the sound of her pet name. "I just called to say I love you." Despite herself, Shizuru blushed in response to this simple phrase and Natsuki's thoughtfulness. "And yeah, I have been waiting for you, but I think I know how to make it all worth the wait. Just trust me."

"Ara, is Natsuki in a kinky mood tonight?" Shizuru said. Her teasing mode was officially on. "Perhaps she wishes to punish me for getting home late? I guess I do deserve it..."

"Shizuru!"

_Yep, definitely blushing._ "I love you too, Natsuki."

* * *

I was running mostly on euphoria after my victory against Haruka-san. I returned to the Pearl's coliseum lounge after the battle, hoping that I might run into Natsuki there. I knew that she wasn't technically allowed into that area, but she'd been let through before the match. Even so, she didn't show up afterwards, and I was forced to wait until after the proceedings were over in order to see her and we could finally proceed with our relationship.

Normally, of course I'd be able to leave the lounge and go meet Natsuki in the stands, but the administration threw a surprise at me immediately after my match. Well, it was Adriana-sensei specifically who came to see me, but I have no doubt that she had the support of Gakuencho Markova in this decision. Adriana-sensei explained that she was watching my performance in the battle and she was very impressed, and she wished to bestow upon me a very high honor.

We parted from the Pearl's lounge to talk in private in one of the spare locker rooms. When we got there, Adriana-sensei explained that she was still recovering from her injury and wouldn't be able to participate in her battle today. Unfortunately, none of the other Columns were nearby, and no Meister Otome was available to take her place. She'd been thinking about asking a couple Pearls who'd won their battles to fight together against Markova-sama, but after seeing my performance, she wanted to see if I'd like the honor of going it alone.

Needless to say, I was stunned by this proposal. A lone Pearl going up against one of the most powerful Otome in the world? I'd be beaten... well, much like I'd beaten Haruka-san not ten minutes ago. Adriana-sensei must have seen the doubt on my features, as she said, "Don't worry, it's alright if you don't wish to do this alone, Shizuru-san. I just thought it might be an honor appropriate for your recent victory."

When Adriana-sensei could see that I was still unsure, she continued, "And no, I'm not like Miss Maria. I'm not trying to get you to do this to teach you a lesson about going all out on your classmate. I was genuinely impressed there, and I thought this would be an appropriate honor. And besides, it's not as if your motivations behind that fight were any big secret, and I also know that Haruka-san wanted nothing less than to face you at your best."

I wasn't really sure what Adriana-sensei had in mind there. Even with a partner, I would have likely have lost out to Gakuencho. I think she just wanted to push me to the extent of my abilities. Later that year, she revealed to me that she'd decided to retire, and it's quite possible that she was grooming me to be her successor even back then.

But all of that is just speculation in retrospect. Back then, I only thought of not wanting to disappoint the Third Column, and so I agreed. Quite pleased with me, Adriana-sensei begged her leave for a couple minutes so she could inform the rest of the staff of the change in plans. She returned shortly, and we spent the rest of the time before the match discussing strategy.

I remembered much from Markova-sama's battle with Adriana-sensei during the enrollment battles the year prior. Adriana-sensei had come out the victor, but it was a very close fight. I could tell from watching that the two of them had battled many times, as both of them were very good at anticipating the other's moves. I had thought then it was just their past performances in enrollment battles, but Anh-oneesama later informed me that Markova-sama had been Adriana-sensei's heya-gakkari when they were students.

What I also noticed, near the end of that battle, was that the two seemed to really care about each other, making it hard for them to inflict pain on one another. Adriana-sensei seemed to target her opponent's armor as much as possible, trying to wear it down while inflicting as little pain as possible. I even saw her briefly embrace the Gakuencho when it was over. Back then, I just thought that they'd become close friends from working together for so many years, but now that I find myself and Natsuki occupying the same positions with a much deeper relationship, I wonder if they might have shared that as well. Perhaps I should ask Adriana-sensei about this when we next speak.

Going into the battle, this gave me a few advantages over Adriana-sensei, which I would have to take full advantage of. The Gakuencho wouldn't have the experience of battling more before like she did with Adriana-sensei, so she wouldn't be as good at predicting my moves. I also wasn't nearly as worried about hurting her – more because I didn't believe I'd be able to do much than from lack of caring – so I could go all out.

However, this didn't nearly compare to the advantages Markova-sama had over me. She had a Meister robe compared to my own Pearl robe, which meant it was superior in almost every facet, and she had years more experience than I did. Adriana-sensei's tips were the only reason that I might have a fighting chance of lasting more than a handful of seconds.

The most important piece of advice that Adriana-sensei gave me was to beware of Gakuencho's element. She was the wearer of the Ice Silver Crystal robe before she passed it on to Natsuki. I'm probably a bit biased, but I do believe Natsuki uses the robe a lot better. She seems to be a lot better at handling her element than Markova-sama was, including adjusting its size on the fly and shooting it with much better accuracy. She is also far, far more beautiful and sexy in it. And the way Sakura's hairpin reacts to it just proves that not only is the robe meant for her, but so am I.

Ara, but that's quite another story. Even my battle with Markova-sama isn't the primary focus, but I hope you will indulge me, as my performance in that battle is a particular point of pride. When it came time to begin, I was as nervous as I'd ever been. I had practice hiding my emotions though, so I was able to project a confident and proud exterior as I was raised into the stadium. The cheering did little to help with my nerves until I caught the sound of a particular husky voice breaking through the cacophony.

"You can do it, Oneesama!" Natsuki called out. I followed the sound of her voice to find her waving at me from the stands. "If any student can beat the Gakuencho, you can!"

Natsuki's confidence in me immediately calmed my nerves. I caught her eyes and blew her a kiss in thanks. I'd already won my battle for her that day, but that wasn't going to stop me from fighting this battle with the same determination. After spending a brief moment to wave to the rest of my fans in the stands – making sure to catch Natsuki's eyes once more at the end so she knew that she was by far the most important fan at that moment – I turned to face the Gakuencho.

"Thank you for granting me the honor of facing you in battle, Gakuencho," I said.

Markova-sama bowed her head to me. "I am quite sure you will not be one to disappoint, Miss Viola."

I bowed before the Gakuencho and faced off with her as I waited for our cue to begin. She was quite the imposing figure in her robe, even without her element materialized. In my memory, I can't help but compare her to Natsuki, not only due to their sharing the same robe, but also because they share no small amount of physical resemblance.

The major difference I saw was in their facial features. Markova-sama's were quite angular and severe naturally, though they softened when she smiled or was otherwise in a good mood. On the other hand, Natsuki's face was naturally soft and sweet when she wasn't thinking about it. It was only when she was in a fight or angry that they hardened. Naturally, this is one of the things I find most adorable about Natsuki; despite how much she tries to put up a strong front, I know that her true nature is that of an utter sweetheart. This is not to say that Markova-sama doesn't possess a beauty of her own, of course, but Natsuki will always be the first in my judgment.

Most of this judgment is in hindsight, though. At that time, I could only compare Gakuencho to the young Natsuki I knew. In a way, it was one of the first of many temptations I faced. I had no trouble admitting that Gakuencho was indeed quite beautiful, but I felt a little guilty noting this now that there was something between Natsuki and me. In the end though, I couldn't stop myself from noticing beauty, so there was nothing to be done. I could, however, stop myself from acting on it. That I didn't for so long is one of my biggest regrets, but Natsuki's forgiven me now and I've cut off the flirting completely – except with Natsuki, of course.

Fortunately I was able to focus my mind back on the situation at hand before we got the signal to begin. I slowly shifted my stance so I was tensed to leap as soon as I heard it, but I didn't want to let on too much to Gakuencho. If she knew what I was planning to do as we started, it would be easy for her to pick me off. From what Adriana-sensei had told me, I had to be extremely careful about her long-range shots. If she got off a decently-charged shot and I wasn't ready for it, I could be out of the battle right there. My sole saving grace was that she couldn't use her ultimate attack, the Howling Silverwolf for fear of the collateral damage it might cause to the stadium and the risk of injuring some students if it broke through the shields protecting the stands. Even with her less-powerful attacks though, she could easily eat through my shield quickly if they hit home, so I couldn't take that chance.

"Begin!"

I leaped into action immediately, dropping out of Markova-sama's line of sight amongst the pillars. I whipped out the tails of my robe to stop myself from falling while I charged up for flight, and I used them to pull myself quickly forward. The sound of an explosion from behind me signaled that Adriana-sensei had been right that Markova-sama would shoot quickly at the beginning, so I continued with my plan. I kicked my way off of pillars, using just a small amount of my robe's power to keep from losing altitude while I approached the pillar Gakuencho had started on.

It took me only a handful of seconds to reach this point after that battle had begun, but I didn't doubt that Gakuencho would have had time enough to react after her initial shot was foiled. Probably not enough to move more than a single pillar away though. Since I started by jumping a bit to my right, she might have gone to the left to keep distance. I shot out a couple tails to latch onto the pillar she started on while I crouched against a pillar off to its right.

As soon as my stance was settled I leaped away and upwards with as much strength as I could muster, sparing just enough thought to materialize and extend my element. I used my robe to add momentum as I started to swing around the pillar at a high velocity, coming out above the tops of the pillars and to the riskiest part of my gambit. If everything went perfectly, I'd be able to whip out my element and hit the Gakuencho with it cutting through the air at a very high speed, possibly even wrapping it around her and giving me a huge advantage in the fight. It was risky, though. If she figured out what I was doing, she could remain on her original pillar and pick me off easily.

I wasn't surprised to find that Gakuencho wasn't on one of my target pillars, but she fortunately also hadn't remained where she started. I caught sight of her in the air off behind them, drifting back and upwards. Flight was another area she had an advantage over me in, as Meister robes were capable of hovering and limited mobility in the air without needing to spend time charging up, while my robe was still charging at this point. She'd likely taken off in hopes of being able to spot me among the pillars and pick me off.

I was too far into my attack to change tactics at this point, though, but luckily I saw an opening. I caught sight of Gakuencho just an instant before she spotted me, so I pulled my element upwards and extended it as far out as I could. She apparently saw my body before my element, and so she raised her element to aim it at me rather than trying to defend herself.

It would seem luck was on my side at that moment. The tip of my element's chain cut into Gakuencho's wrist just as she was trying to take aim at me. I could barely hear her let out a hiss over the wind rushing past my ears, and her grip on the element faltered. My element's chain soon caught up to her rifle and knocked it clear from her hands where it soon dematerialized in a shower of green sparks.

As I swung away, I could hear two things. The first was the announcer shouting, almost in surprise, that I'd scored the first hit of the battle, minor as it was. The second was the telltale whine of my robe that told me it was done charging. When I heard this, I released the tails of my robe from the pillar and fired its thrusters to take off into flight. I had only scant seconds to press my advantage here. It was impossible to predict what Markova-sama might do from here, so I had to take advantage of her momentary stun as much as I could before she turned the tide on me.

I guess my getting the first hit made me overconfident there. Gakuencho was able to recover even before I could turn around, and I found myself struck by one of her robe's tails. She was upon me quickly, and we battled it out in close combat for some time. Needless to say, she far outmatched me. I was able to get a few good hits off after that point, but I was simply doomed from the start. As the battle went on, I wondered just how Adriana-sensei had been able to convince Gakuencho to go along with this. Asymmetric battles certainly weren't unheard of at Garderobe, certainly. In fact, the graduation battle between the top Pearls and Corals was one such battle which took place yearly, but this was quite a different matter.

That was simply my pride getting in the way of things, though. The perspective in the stands turned out to be quite different. Even though I was no doubt losing the fight, the crowd seemed amazed by just how well I was holding up. From what Natsuki told me of what she saw while watching it, I was managing to get roughly one good attack in for every two or three of the Gakuencho's, which, quite frankly, I considered a minor miracle.

About midway through, the crowd was completely enthused by the battle. The cheering for me was able to push away my doubts about the fight and I pressed on until the end. When the last bits of my robe's durability were worn away, I dropped to the ground in an exhausted haze. I was barely able to stand on my feet long enough to bow before Gakuencho. I had to lean against the remnants of a pillar to keep from collapsing into a heap on the ground. Even in defeat, an Otome had to be the epitome of grace. Though if one were to judge by the crowd's reaction, I hadn't faced much of a defeat at all. The applause was almost deafening. I may not have officially won, but it was a spiritual victory at the very least.

"Very impressive, Miss Viola," Gakuencho said to me, barely audible over the cheering.

I spared Markova-sama only a quick nod and smile before I casted my gaze into the stands. My body felt ready to collapse, but I needed to make eye contact with Natsuki once more. I had dedicated this battle in her name, so it only seemed right. My eyes found hers easily, and I gave her a weak smile. I tried to read her expression, but it was impossible to figure out given the distance. Judging by the rush of warmth that went through my heart though, I think she was smiling back.

-x-X-x-

I was fortunate enough in the battle not to sustain any serious injuries. In the end, all I needed was a good amount of bed-rest to recover. Many others who had lost a battle weren't so lucky, and I actually felt a little guilty about the damage I'd inflicted on Haruka-san. She'd suffered a concussion and more broken bones than her nanomachines could repair at once, forcing her to endure an extended recovery period. I wasn't too guilty though; she knew what she was getting into when she provoked me into fighting at my best, and I was sure it would just encourage her to work even harder for the next time we fought.

Once I'd been cleared to leave so the nurses could deal with more serious cases, I retired to my room for the remainder of the day. Even though I wasn't seriously injured, my body was still incredibly sore after my battle, so I spent most of the evening resting in bed. I watched some recordings of the rest of the enrollment battles which I missed while discussing tactics with Adriana-sensei, along with both of my own to see how I looked.

Around the time I was finishing up with the recordings, I noticed that some sort of commotion was developing outside my room. I started to get up to go see what was happening, but a sharp pain in my back made me rethink that idea. It probably wasn't worth the exertion at this point, I figured. Most likely it was simply my fans crowding at my door hoping to offer their congratulations or support. Though perhaps if that were the case, it might be nice to let them know that I was alright so they wouldn't worry themselves too much, I mused.

I was still trying to decide whether or not to make the effort to try to reassure the crowd when I was brought out of my thoughts by the sound of my door opening. I'd locked it when I came in earlier, and only the Trias and staff had master keys that could open the door, but any of them would simply ask first. Surprisingly, I was wrong in that assessment of who it could be. Almost as soon as the door was open a crack, Natsuki came tumbling through. She quickly turned around and pressed it closed against the tide of my fangirls, growling at them to scare them backwards. I couldn't help but notice that the commotion outside seemed to die down after Natsuki's growl, but I didn't pay much attention to it after that point. I had a much more important person to pay attention to.

Once Natsuki had secured and locked the door, the tough image she'd put up vanished. She slowly turned around, revealing a nervous and self-conscious expression, which I found simply adorable. "Err... sorry, Oneesama," she said timidly. "I shouldn't have come in without knocking. It was just such chaos out there. Rosina-oneesama unlocked the door for me, but there just wasn't time to..."

"It's alright Natsuki," I said, cutting her off before she got too worried. Already she'd worked herself up into a blush and she was looking away from me as she tried to justify her intrusion. As cute as it was, I didn't want to give her the impression that I didn't want her to remain through silence. She looked up at me with a relieved expression, blush fading, and I continued, "You are my heya-gakkari now, after all, so my room is always open to you. I'll get a copy of my key for you soon, too."

"Ah," Natsuki said. She was still quite nervous, and she remained rooted to her place. "Thank you... Oneesama."

"Natsuki can come over here if she wants," I said, motioning to a chair near my bed. "There's much I'd like to discuss, and I wouldn't want Natsuki-chan to get sore legs from standing there all night." Natsuki winced slightly at my words, sending a wave of panic through my chest. She did come and sit down though, pulling the chair up next to my bed, but I had to know what was wrong. I couldn't bear the thought of hurting her again, even slightly. "Is something the matter Natsuki?" I asked.

"Er, no," she said, shifting uncomfortably in her seat, which just served to make me more worried. "It's just... 'Natsuki-chan' is what you called me when you... you know..."

"Oh," I said. It really hadn't been that long since the incident between us, so it wasn't surprising that she might still be sensitive to reminders _(of that – additional?)_. I had to do what I could to make things right now, so I reached out to take one of her hands and gently pat it. "Forgive me, Natsuki. I won't call you 'chan' again if it's an unpleasant reminder."

Natsuki shook her head quickly. "No! You didn't do anything wrong. You couldn't know how I'd take that. It's fine, really. I'm just being silly here." Natsuki looked up into my eyes as she said this. Her own eyes seemed to sparkle with sincerity here, and I couldn't help but instinctively smile back at her.

"Thank you, Natsuki," I said. I continued gazing into her eyes for a time. For some reason, this moment felt special to me, and I wanted to make it last as long as possible. I was still unsure just what it was I felt for Natsuki, but there was certainly some connection there. Part of my new quest to rediscover myself would definitely have to include figuring out just what I felt for Natsuki and what role she might ultimately play in my life.

Natsuki broke from our gazing before I did, glancing away as her cheeks filled with pink. "Um, so yeah..." she said. "I guess we're girlfriends now, right? I've never really been in a relationship before, so..."

A newly-formed part of my mind spoke up at this point, bringing a potential way to tease Natsuki to the fore. I could have pretended to be surprised she thought we were girlfriends, pointing out that we'd only really talked about her being my heya-gakkari. It surely would have provoked an adorable reaction. The only thing was... she was already acting adorably. She didn't need me to push her further, and in fact, that she was acting like this all on her own made it all the more special. It was almost a shame, as it was such a clever tease, but something else would surely come to me when I needed it.

"This is my first relationship as well, Natsuki," I said. "So at least you aren't alone there. We're both just as new at this."

"It is?" Natsuki said, turning her head up to look at me with surprise. "But what about all your fangirls? I thought you did stuff with them all the time..."

Sure enough, my mind didn't fail me at bringing up a tease just when I needed it. "Natsuki thinks me such a lech?" I softened my features into a feigned hurt and blinked my eyes sadly. "Does she think me the type to give up my innocence to a girl I feel nothing for? Natsuki herself was the only one I ever considered doing that with..."

It was pure heaven watching Natsuki's features contort as my tease went on. First was the fear and panic from thinking that she'd just insulted me. This led into mortification as I frankly discussed what I'd originally planned for her. She must have caught a hint of a smirk on my face though at this point, as she seemed to realize that I was just joking with her. "Gah! Shizuru!" She angrily swatted at my body through the bedsheets and then turned away as much as she could in her chair with a pout as I broke out into laughter at her reaction.

When my laughter calmed down – and Natsuki's face reached its peak level of purple – I bent up in bed, grimacing through the pain, and I reached out a hand to Natsuki's shoulder. She let out a soft growl when she felt it, but her own hand soon came up to connect with it, letting me know that she wasn't really mad. I pulled gently to get her to turn back around, and I gave her a gentle smile in apology. That wasn't to say I regretted it, of course, but she had to know I wasn't teasing out of malice.

"But seriously, Natsuki. I never fooled around with my fangirls beyond what I could get away with in the halls. I did plan to do more with my eventual heya-gakkari, but Natsuki's reaction changed things. I'm not really the person who puts up a show in the hallways. My Oneesama changed me over my last year here. Her constant teasing and groping made me start acting like a pervert myself. My true self became buried and lost. It wasn't until Natsuki rejected me that I started remembering who I was."

I had Natsuki enraptured by my story. She was watching me so sweetly as I talked. There was just a hint of a blush on her cheeks from realizing just how important she was to me.

"Before I entered Garderobe, I was a romantic idealist. I dreamed of falling in love with a beautiful and graceful Oneesama and having a storybook romance. Unfortunately, although Anh-oneesama helped me a lot in becoming an Otome, she corrupted my dreams. When I met Natsuki, I should have dreamed of romancing her, not making her my heya-gakkari and ordering her to my bed." It was my turn to blush as I remembered these thoughts of mine. Natsuki certainly deserved much better than such a treatment. She was such a strong girl in her own right. I had no right to even consider ordering her to sleep with me.

"You know..." Natsuki said. "You're really not so bad at the romancing part when you talk like this." She brought my hand up to her face and gave it a light kiss. "Thank you for sharing this, Shizuru."

I nodded back at Natsuki. "I just wish I could say more about who I really am, but I guess we'll both just have to find that out together as we grow into ourselves." Natsuki nodded at this and gave me a shy smile. "I guess that'll be your primary responsibility as my heya-gakkari. I keep my room very clean myself, so you won't need to help out there. Since you're also my girlfriend, it wouldn't feel right to give you any orders. I might request things, but I'll never force you into anything."

Natsuki let out a light chuckle. "It's alright, Shizuru. You worry too much, you know that? I'll be certain to help you find yourself, and I'm going to help you take care of your room whether you ask me to or not."

Natsuki gave my hand a gentle squeeze. Her sentiment caused another blush to make its way to my face. "Natsuki's too sweet..." I said, while privately vowing to get my revenge for that blush. As soon as it settled down, I decided to delve into an area that would hopefully provide some good teasing material. "So, Natsuki, I've told you about where I'm coming from here. How about you? Were you the romantic type before coming to Garderobe as well?"

"Er, well, not really," Natsuki said. I was surprised that this simple question brought a blush to her face; I hadn't even been trying yet. She even went so far as to nervously rub the back of her neck and avert her eyes from me. "Or not at all, I should say. I barely gave romance a second thought before I got here."

Natsuki shifted in her chair a bit, looking back over at me before continuing softly, "I mean, I knew that Otome had to give up relationships with men until they retired, but I just wasn't interested in that stuff at the time, so I didn't worry about it. My mother did caution me that things might change as I got older, but it seemed far enough off for me that I wouldn't have to worry about it until I'd done my duty as an Otome first."

"Ara, yes," I said, giving Natsuki the most understanding smile I could. "That is what most girls coming in here think, and it generally works out well enough for them. I guess I was just expecting you to be a bit more like I was: a romantic, but one who preferred girls and so faced no barriers if she became an Otome. The way you reacted to my advances were much like the romantic I was in your place."

My mind had started to drift as I spoke, back to my own days as a Coral. I was brought back to reality after a minute, though, when I caught the sound of Natsuki's voice. "It was you," Natsuki said, just above a whisper.

"Ara?" I turned back to focus on the girl. She seemed to be engrossed in thought herself, with her eyes cast down to the bed and her hands idly playing with the bedsheets. "What do you mean, Natsuki?"

It was another minute or so before Natsuki answered. I watched her closely, waiting patiently for the words to come to her. She was so adorable in this state that I could easily have waited hours After some time of cutely chewing on her lip as she searched for the words, she started to speak again. "I wasn't the romantic type until I saw you. First day at Garderobe, you greeted the Corals and won the hearts of half the class. Second day, I found myself dreaming of a future with you, with all the romantic crap that entailed. You – or at least the mask you put on when greeting us – fit the profile of the perfect girlfriend for me that I didn't even know I had. Hell, I was clueless that it was even a girlfriend I wanted. Even now, it's hard to picture myself with anyone else, boy or girl. The romantic part of my mind was born from you... which was why it hurt so much when I found out that you weren't who I thought you were. Well, maybe you are now, but back then..."

I cut Natsuki off by gently placing a finger to her lips. As cute as her rambling back and forth was, I just couldn't take any more of it. Her explanation was so utterly sweet, I could feel my cheeks burning red from the thought. That was the first time I really knew that I'd made the right decision to be with her. Someone that could break down my barriers so effortlessly was precious indeed. Even the surprised look she gave me as I cut her off was priceless. All I could get out in explanation was an embarrassed, "Natsuki is making me blush..."

I let myself lay back down on my bed and turned to the side then – wincing a bit from the pain in my back and trying to find a good position – hoping to spare my burning cheeks the agony of watching Natsuki's cute expression any longer. It really wasn't fair, I protested silently. I wasn't the blushing type. I was supposed to be able to make my cute heya-gakkari blush for me, not be at her mercy. Well, I guess I could make her blush, and I think I was still ahead overall, I had to admit to myself. And it wasn't that I didn't enjoy her being so sweet... I let out a sigh of resignation. If Natsuki was willing to put up with me making her blush, then I had to do the same for her, even if we achieved that result from each other in different ways.

Soon I felt a gentle hand come to rest on my shoulder, stroking down my arm slowly. "Are you alright, Oneesama?" she asked. "Gakuencho really did a number on you..."

I guess Natsuki must have seen me wince as I lay down. Her concern was indeed sweet, but she was also overdue for a blush of her own. I rolled onto my back to look up at her and put on my best "wounded" expression. "Does Natsuki think me so weak that I can't even lie down without injuring myself?" I sniffled a bit and blinked my eyes rapidly to build up moisture in them. "Ikezu..."

Sure enough, Natsuki went into panic mode. "What? No! No, Shizuru, I didn't mean it like that! I'm sure you're just fine!"

Natsuki was so cute getting flustered over the slightest possibility of having insulted me that I nearly broke out into laughter right there. However, I was fortunately able to keep it in for just one more tease. "Then Natsuki doesn't care about my injuries? She really is an ikezu..." I started sobbing at this point, acting like I was on the verge of breaking out into tears. I know it was a bit cruel to play with her like that, but I was starting to get the impression that she secretly enjoyed that type of teasing, after our conversation earlier that day, before my battle. I didn't expect her to ever admit it, of course – which made me all the more touched when she actually did, but that's another story.

"Wha- No, no! I do I care, and I am not an ikezu! I don't even know what an ikezu is and..." Natsuki trailed off as I couldn't contain myself any longer and started laughing at her behavior. Oh, she was priceless indeed, especially with how her face promptly turned purple at the realization that I'd tricked her so easily and so blatantly. "You're mean, Oneesama..."

"Yes, yes, I'm an ikezu myself sometimes, I know," I said through my diminishing laughter. "But it's only because Natsuki is so fun to tease." I reached out to take Natsuki's hand, in a little show of apology. "But I'll stop if she really wants me to. I could never truly hurt her again."

Natsuki's reaction to that showed me just one of the things I'd eventually come to love most about her. She seemed to consider it for a bit, her face contorting through her consideration and her eyes glancing back and forth from me, all the while her cheeks remaining in an adorable shade of pink. Eventually she let out a defeated sigh. "You're an ikezu, Shizuru... But as long as you're _my_ ikezu, I can live with it."

I couldn't help it. I let a huge grin cross my face and I flung myself upwards and to Natsuki, grabbing her in a hug as I pushed all thoughts of the pain in my body to the back of my mind. I held her tight as she initially jumped from the shock, but as she slowly settled into it and brought her own arms around me, I loosened my hold and let my chin come to rest on her shoulder, resting my head against hers. We both knew well what those words meant from her: She was learning a bit about who I really was, and she was fine with it. Perhaps it even made her like me more, deep inside.

"And Natsuki is a sweetheart," I said once she started to cuddle back in the hug. "_My_ sweetheart." I couldn't see her blush from this, but I could feel the warmth coming from her cheek, especially as she pressed it closer to mine.

"Shizuru..." she mumbled into my shoulder. We remained like that for a few more precious seconds, before a concern seemed to hit Natsuki. She slowly pulled back from the hug, and said as soon as she could see my eyes, "You really shouldn't move like that, you know... It can't be good for your injuries."

"Yes, yes..." I said, backing up a bit more from Natsuki and then allowing myself to lie back down. "Natsuki is sweet to be concerned, but that hug was worth it." I shuffled around a bit to find a good position for my back, and then I looked back over at Natsuki and said, "All these injuries are worth it too, you know. I fought both my battles in Natsuki's name today. Even if I couldn't win the second one, I hope she still is proud of me..."

"You did?" Natsuki said, and I gave a small nod back to her. She seemed to consider this for a moment, before saying, "Thank you, Oneesama. I guess it was really amazing that you held up that well against Gakuencho... but why would they put you in that battle at all? Are such lopsided battles common here?"

"Well, not that common, but they do happen. For instance, in my graduation battles last year, Haruka-san and I had to fight against our Oneesamas. It's really supposed to be more of an honor than anything else. No one expected me to do more than scratch Gakuencho, but it was an honor just being able to fight her."

"I see..." Natsuki said. "Though you still did really impress everyone with just how well you did." Natsuki dropped her eyes from mine as her cheeks filled with pink. "And it was all in my name, you say?"

"Did Natsuki forget that already?" I teased the girl with a little smirk, though she just gave me a little glare in response. "Of course it was for you, Natsuki."

"Well then!" Natsuki said, determination now in her voice, much to my confusion. I was even more confused when she stood up from her chair, and then she crawled up on my bed and hovered above me. "I guess it's up to me to make up for all those injuries then..." she said, an impish grin on her face.

I gave the girl a thankful smile. "Ara, thanks, but Natsuki doesn't have to..." The feeling of Natsuki's body coming to rest on top of mine quickly made me lose track of where I was in my sentence. Her face was so close to mine now... It was a good thing I was already lying down, as otherwise I surely would have collapsed from the wave of weakness that hit me then. Even lying down, I felt I had to wrap my arms around Natsuki's back to keep myself stable.

"Maybe not, but I want to," Natsuki said. Her eyes were mere inches from mine, and I felt like I could see right into her soul... a soul which I adored very much.

My heart started racing as Natsuki moved closer to me, her head tilting slightly so her nose wouldn't bump into mine. I let my eyes drift closed and stretched my lips out towards her in anticipation. I knew this was a moment I'd remember for the rest of my life, and the anticipation nearly killed me as Natsuki slowly descended.

At last, it happened. Natsuki's soft lips came into tentative contact with my own. At first it was slow and cautious, as she gently formed a seal with my own lips and sucked in, pulling us together in a beautiful moment that nearly brought tears to my eyes. We remained kissing like that for many blissful seconds, before Natsuki slowly broke the seal.

She didn't move away, though. It seemed that she just wanted to explore more with kissing me. She let her lips part a bit and started exploring around my own with them. I matched her pace here, parting my own lips to help deepen the kiss with her, bringing us from the innocent peck we'd started with to a much deeper connection. My heart kept racing as we explored our first kiss together, and my body was overwhelmed with new sensations to me. My chest seemed to be filled with a strange aching, but the pressure of Natsuki on top of me seemed to help balance it out and turn it all into a pleasant warmth.

I don't know how long the kiss lasted. Neither of us seemed to want it to ever end. The longer it lasted, the better everything felt with Natsuki. It only ended when Natsuki seemed to get worn out from holding her head above my own, and she slipped to drop her face down onto the pillow beside me. We stayed like that, holding each other for some more time, before I finally spoke.

"Natsuki..." I said weakly. "I know I said I wouldn't give you any orders as your Oneesama, but for tonight, one request?"

Natsuki pulled back so she could look down at me and smile. "Of course. What is it, Shizuru?"

I felt my cheeks redden a little under her gaze. "Could you stay here tonight? I just want to keep holding you... kissing you..."

The expression in Natsuki's eyes then was so beautiful; it was so full of joy. "I'd love to, Shizuru," she said softly.

Natsuki and I made out and cuddled late into the night, eventually falling to sleep in each other's arms. There were many special moments in our relationship together, but this stands out in my mind as the first truly magical one. It was when I first felt a small flame igniting in my heart for Natsuki. I'd begun the long process of falling in love with her. Even today, I'm still falling, and I doubt I'll ever stop.

* * *

Shizuru opened the door as slowly and quietly as she could manage, hoping to be able to surprise Natsuki with her early arrival. Her lover certainly wouldn't expect her to be here mere seconds after their call. She noticed that the lights were out in the hall just past the door, and she opted not to turn them on and possibly give her presence away. As soon as the door was open just enough, she slipped through it, careful not to let the door open to the point where its hinges would start to creak and possibly alert Natsuki.

A subtle click and a small burst of light from just the edge of Shizuru's vision made her quickly turn her head, hoping she hadn't been spotted and that Natsuki had just turned on the light in the bathroom. Neither of those was the case, though. In fact, Shizuru wasn't really sure what was going on. A small light was mounted on the wall just in front of the door, illuminating a piece of paper taped to the wall below it.

Allowing her eyes to adjust to the dim light, Shizuru approached the paper, trying to puzzle out what all was going on. Natsuki had just called her from their apartment, so she had to be in here now. What was her plan then? Some big romantic gesture, perhaps? It would indeed be just like Natsuki to feel she'd gone overboard the previous night and try to rectify things now, but could she have planned something like this out in just one day? If it involved mounting lights on the walls, and possibly a trigger for when she opened the door, it couldn't be simple.

When Shizuru's eyes had adjusted enough, she took a long look at the paper. It appeared to be the cover of an Otome fanbook, featuring a beautiful illustration of her holding Natsuki in bed. It was set back in their student days, with her wearing her Pearl uniform and Natsuki in her Coral uniform. The art was unbelievable, and just looking at it brought Shizuru back to those days herself, feeling the emotions that her illustrated version did. The setting looked just like the time she'd shared her first kiss with Natsuki, and she couldn't help feeling the rush of emotions from that moment flow through her body again.

Shizuru brought a hand up to trail along the image of Natsuki, instinctively trying to stroke her love. Her fingers trailed down, over the title written below the two young lovers: "The Natsuki and Shizuru Story." Shizuru smiled at this. She knew well that many fanbooks had been written about her and Natsuki, from young fans just guessing at their relationship – or perhaps able to see their compatibility and imagine them together – but she'd thought that Natsuki didn't want anything to do with them. Apparently all bets were off though when it came to big romantic gestures, though. Natsuki was truly too sweet sometimes.

The light slowly turned off now, but it was replaced by piano music which rose up around Shizuru. It took only a few seconds before she was able to place the tune that was playing: It was one of her own pieces, and her own piano playing even. It was what she called "Natsuki's Song," and it was the only song she felt truly contained a piece of her love in it. She'd taken to playing it for Natsuki on lazy days in the office, improvising a little each time, to keep her love entertained. It certainly never failed to bring a smile to Natsuki's face as she lay back to listen, preferably while drinking a cup of Shizuru's home-brewed green tea.

A gentle brush against Shizuru's right cheek made her turn her head, expecting to find Natsuki standing beside her. She saw no one, though. Was she just imagining it? ...No, she definitely felt Natsuki's presence, and her scent was in the air. Her love was most likely just playing some little game here, which was perfectly fine with Shizuru. A playful Natsuki was a lovable Natsuki – which was not to say that any other type of Natsuki wasn't lovable, of course.

Although Natsuki wasn't to be seen in this direction, Shizuru did witness the illumination of a series of candles that were lined up along each side of the hallway. The pair closest to her lit up first, followed by successive pairs down to the corner and then around it, likely leading her to either the bathroom or bedroom. The bedroom seemed most likely to her, although Natsuki had come up with that particular Valentine's Day treat a few years ago...

Shizuru was so engrossed in memories of the mingled tastes of chocolate and Natsuki that it took her some time to realize that another light had lit up, just down the hall from her. Not bothering to wipe the smile off of her face, she approached the light to find pages from another fanbook attached to the wall below it. It was drawn in a different artistic style, but these pages also featured her and Natsuki together. They started off with their conflict in the cafeteria, when Natsuki had asked to be her heya-gakkari and Shizuru had let her base desires take over. The panels followed both of them for the next couple of days, as neither could get the other out of her head, even though they should have had every reason to be on bad terms. The final panel showed Haruka's challenge to Shizuru over who would win Natsuki, with Shizuru finally showing resolution as she accepted the terms.

Shizuru's smile widened a bit at the memories. Much of those events had been public, so it wasn't surprising that many fanbooks featured them more or less accurately. Their private thoughts, as each of them tried to figure out what had happened and why this bothered them so much, of course had to be guessed at, but it seemed that Natsuki had picked out a book which made a reasonably accurate guess. _How many books did Natsuki search through to find the best match to reality? _Shizuru wondered. Natsuki was certainly a woman of many surprises.

Soon this light did as its predecessor had and went out, but another came on to replace it just across the hallway, after the next pair of candles. Shizuru found herself drifting over to it as if in trance. The whole experience was starting to feel just a little surreal. The candles seemed to be giving off a decent amount of smoke, certainly more than seemed likely given the small amount of illumination they provided, and she could have sworn she spotted Natsuki's figure briefly outlined by the wisps on a couple of occasions. Was that a simple trick of her mind, or had Natsuki somehow figured out a way to engineer that effect?

There would be time to ask her love about that later, though. Natsuki obviously had her own plan tonight, and Shizuru was more than happy to follow it. She read through the pages she found under the third light, which covered her brief chat with Natsuki before her battle with Haruka plus the two battles she participated in that day. Truly such nice memories...

The attention to detail these fans paid was simply amazing, Shizuru had to note. How many people would have even known that Natsuki had come down to see her before the match? It couldn't have been common knowledge, though a few Pearls had seen Natsuki coming to see her that day. Perhaps this artist had heard from one of them – or even was one of them. Most of her classmates who hadn't gotten a Meister position found work in other Otome-related areas, such as supporting their fandom. Garderobe students were taught a variety of secondary skills, which the staff told the students were to help them please their masters, but were actually intended to help out those students who didn't land a Meistership, so that they had other skills to fall back on. Many students took up artistic endeavors, so it wouldn't have been too surprising if one of Shizuru's classmate's who was into drawing had gone on to create work like this after she'd left Garderobe.

The dimming of the light in front of her and another playful touch from Natsuki – who somehow still managed to remain out of view – signaled Shizuru that she'd sat there musing over the artist's identity long enough. She turned around, finding the next light to be lit up over the corner, illuminating a pair of pages and the small table below it. Shizuru approached it, and then she had to let out a small laugh when she saw what Natsuki had pasted up here. Instead of a couple pages showing an excerpt of their story, Natsuki had plucked panels from dozens of different fanbooks, every one of them illustrating the two of them engaged in a sweet, passionate kiss. Shizuru didn't know the context of them all, but perhaps they were all even supposed to be their first kiss. Natsuki just seemed intent on constantly topping herself tonight, but Shizuru certainly wasn't going to complain about that.

Shizuru hadn't thought much of the table at first – it was normally where they just left their keys – but an intoxicating and familiar aroma coming from it was now starting to fill her head, and it made Shizuru look down to see what Natsuki had done there. She'd initially assumed that the candles here were just like the others, but she now noticed that they in fact weren't candles at all, but dimly glowing sticks. A bemused smile crossed her face as she realized what they in fact were: incense sticks imported from Zipang, much like her parents used on special occasions.

_Special occasions...?_ Shizuru let out a gasp. Natsuki had never gone to such lengths as this before. She had set up big romantic gestures for their various anniversaries and Shizuru's birthday, but this night was starting to look bigger than any of those. The only possible explanation was that this was for a huge, one-time event. And the only real possibility for that...

_Natsuki wants to marry me._

Shizuru couldn't help it; tears broke free from her eyes. It was all too much. Natsuki just wasn't playing fair here. Shizuru's every sense was being stimulated, with the music playing in the background, the beautiful drawings before her, Natsuki's occasional touches from wherever she was hiding, the incense burning, and even the taste of a chocolate-covered Natsuki which she'd brought to her own tongue. There was just no way she could resist; she was starting to break down now. She only wished she'd been able to hold out long enough to get through everything Natsuki had planned.

Shizuru was saved from collapsing by a pair of strong arms which wrapped around her from behind. She felt Natsuki's head come to rest on her shoulder, and she reached her hands up to hold onto Natsuki's arms. A small rippling effect in the air revealed Natsuki's arms to her eyes, and the back of Shizuru's mind identified this as the effect from Sara's cloaking device, which explained why she'd had so much trouble spotting Natsuki. It was yet more evidence of all the work Natsuki had put into making this night so magical.

"Forgive me, Natsuki..." Shizuru said, her voice trembling as she rested her head against Natsuki's. "It's all too much. I'm sorry I couldn't last through everything you had planned. It's just too much."

"Don't worry, Shizuru," Natsuki said. Just the sound of her lover's voice sent ripples of contentment through Shizuru's body. "Just come." Natsuki slipped away to Shizuru's left, her hand interlocking with Shizuru's and guiding her towards their bedroom. She hit a couple buttons on a device attached to her robe as she walked, cycling through the lights that were on in the hall and finally illuminating their bedroom in a soft glow. Shizuru made a note to herself that she had to make sure she saw the rest of Natsuki's presentation as soon as she had it in her, but for now, she simply couldn't wait to let Natsuki make her proposal.

Natsuki guided Shizuru to stand at the foot of their bed. Shizuru thanked her lover's small mercies, as this provided her with a nice place to collapse down should her knees fail, as seemed almost inevitable at this point. Shizuru watched silently as Natsuki placed her remote down on the dresser and then dematerialized her robe.

Shizuru's breath caught in her throat as she gazed upon Natsuki's chosen outfit for the night. Her lover was wearing a long, sparkling black dress that held loosely to her form. It was sleeveless, exposing Natsuki's arms which somehow pulled off the miracle of being muscular and yet perfectly feminine. They were the perfect arms to be held by night after night. _And for the rest of my life now,_ Shizuru thought with a smile and a few more tears coming to her eyes.

Even the fact that Natsuki was wearing a dress at all threatened to make Shizuru break down now. It was no secret that Natsuki hated wearing a dress. The closest she would ever come normally was wearing her dress robe, and that only when it was obligatory. Natsuki's reason for this was that she normally didn't like appearing too feminine, at least in public. The exception was when she was alone with Shizuru, where she could let her inner sweetness show through. In time, Natsuki had rethought her views on appearing feminine in public, but by that point this had become established as one of the ways she showed her love for Shizuru, and so she kept this part of herself saved for Shizuru only.

Shizuru's mind had just started to drift to fantasies of peeling Natsuki out of that dress when her love picked up a small box from the dresser and turned to Shizuru. Shizuru's heart started to beat fiercely in her throat as Natsuki took her hand and knelt down – or at least tried to. The tension was broken as Shizuru watched Natsuki struggle with her dress so she could properly kneel. Eventually she managed it by bunching up the lower half of her dress around her waist, but it was too late to prevent Shizuru from breaking out into laughter at how cute her lover got when she was flustered.

Natsuki let out a low growl, though Shizuru could see that her cheeks were filling with red, so she knew that Natsuki was taking this hitch in her plans well enough. To clinch the deal though, Shizuru had to get in one little tease. "Ara, now this just makes me doubly glad that Natsuki chose to wear a dress tonight," she said.

True to form, Natsuki's blush deepened. She let out a low growl and said, "Well, I guess now I understand why the man usually does this."

"But I don't want a man," Shizuru said, taking back her girlfriend's hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. "I want Natsuki, girlishness and all." Natsuki looked back up at Shizuru and gave her a thankful smile. Her blush had started to fade a bit, but not entirely. Shizuru knew she would forever be thankful that that particular blush remained on her love's face throughout what she said next.

"And I want you too, Shizuru," Natsuki said. "Ever since I've known you. In my life, you're the only person I've ever felt this way about. I love you, Shizuru, more than I could have ever imagined possible. Every day it seems I fall in love with you a little more. Even when we fight we somehow always seem to come out of it even closer and with everything forgiven. It just doesn't seem possible that what we have could ever end, and I thank Shinso everyday that we could be together like this."

At this point, Natsuki raised up the box she held in her left hand and flipped it open with her thumb. Shizuru let out a gasp upon seeing the brilliant gem shining inside. It looked somewhat like an amethyst, but she'd never seen that particular shade before. The crystal's color seemed to flow between a vibrant violet and cobalt blue, depending on just how the light hit it. Shizuru didn't know exactly what it was, but if it was rare enough that she'd never seen anything like it before, then it was surely priceless.

"Everything I am I owe to you," Natsuki said. Shizuru tore her gaze away from the ring to look back at her lover. "You're my other half, Shizuru. I can't live without, and I don't intend to. I want to spend the rest of my life with you by side. I want to be married to you, Shizuru. Will you make my dreams come true and become my wife?"

Shizuru could barely speak. She'd thought she'd been able to stabilize herself for this after the lighthearted moment before, but hearing the words was just too much. Tears broke free from her eyes and her voice caught in her throat. She nodded desperately and then forced out a reply. "Yes... of course, Natsuki. A thousand times, yes..."

The smile that split across Natsuki's face made Shizuru's heart feel like it was exploding in joy. She was barely able to contain herself as Natsuki withdrew the ring from the box and then delicately slipped it onto her left ring finger. Once she was done, Shizuru didn't even give her a chance to react before she pulled Natsuki up to her feet and locked her into a passionate kiss. Natsuki was a bit surprised at first, but in less than a second her own emotions seemed to have gotten the better of her as well and she kissed Shizuru back just as passionately.

"Thank you... Thank you, Natsuki..." Shizuru said in the breaks she could manage in the kiss. She didn't put much effort into talking, though. It seemed that Natsuki, too, had started to break down. The strength she had prepared for this night was running out, now that her proposal was finished. In fact, this was just what Shizuru was now counting on. She needed to pay Natsuki back for all of this, and if her lover wasn't in a bit of a weakened state she might waste some of her energy trying to do something for Shizuru. That certainly wouldn't do. Shizuru planned to use every bit of energy her fiancée had left tonight for Natsuki's own pleasure. It wouldn't come close to being thanks enough, but she had to start somewhere.

As she tried to kiss Natsuki down to a weakened state, Shizuru slowly turned herself and her lover around so that Natsuki's back was to the bed. As soon as they were ready, she pushed forward, bringing Natsuki down until she was lying on her back with Shizuru on top, still kissing her to forestall any questions. Natsuki didn't seem to mind at all, though. In fact, she seemed to have been expecting this. All the better then, in Shizuru's opinion.

It was hard to pull herself away from the kiss, but eventually Shizuru managed. She gazed down at her lover, and she brought up her hand to trace her fingers around the shoulder-strap of Natsuki's dress, eying the flesh beneath it hungrily. She allowed a touch of a predatory glint to enter her eyes as she looked directly at Natsuki. "And now, my fiancée, I have to thank you properly. I never imagined you'd propose this soon, or do this much for me, so now I have to do everything in my power to repay you. You're mine tonight, and I don't intend to let you go until you can take no more."

A trace of fear crossed Natsuki's expression as she understood just what Shizuru intended, but it was soon gone. She let her eyes close and gave a light chuckle. "Alright, Shizuru. I'm yours."

**To be continued in _Oneesama Sidestories_**

**Author's Note:** I really hope everyone enjoyed this. It certainly feels like an epic end for this story. Of course, there's still more I can write here, but I'll likely work on Ascension next. There are actually quite a lot of things I'd like to say about this chapter, some just to share my thoughts, some to anticipate possible questions from readers, so why don't I just go ahead?

-I believe this is actually the first story on about how Natsuki and Shizuru got together in the Otome universe to actually be completed. I hope you think it's worthy of that position.

-I'll likely write an epilogue to this story where you'll see all that Natsuki (and I) actually had planned out for her proposal. I was originally planning for them to go through all of it, but sometimes I just have to go where the characters take me.

-More than one little nod in here to other stories I've written. It's a parallel universe after all, so similar things probably happened. ;)

And finally, I just want to give thanks to all my readers and reviewers, with a special thanks reserved for chatterbox-hikaru who betaed most of this for me. She also deserves credit for inspiring me to finish this faster. Oh, and for becoming my girlfriend while this chapter was being written. ;)


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